A  STUDENT'S  TEXTBOOK 

IN   THE 

HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


A  STUDENT'S  TEXTBOOK  IN  THE 

•HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION' 


BY 

STEPHEN  PIERCE  DUGGAN,  PH.D. 

PBOFESSOB   OF   EDUCATION   IN   THE  COLLEGE   OF  THE  CITY   OF   NEW   YORK 


D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 


'  •<* 


COFTBIGHT,  1916,  BY 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO  MY  WIFE 

SARAH  E.  DUGGAN 


357308 


PREFACE 

Some  years  ago  I  prepared  a  syllabus  in  the  history 
of  education  for  the  use  of  my  undergraduate  classes  in 
the  Qollege  of  the  City  of  New  York  and  in  an  exten- 
sion course  offered  to  teachers  in  the  city.  This  volume 
is  the  result  of  a  suggestion  on  the  part  of  those  pupils 
that  the  syllabus  be  expanded  into  a  textbook.  It  is 
written  primarily  as  a  teaching  instrument,  for  students 
who  are  preparing  to  teach  or  who  have  a  cultural  in- 
terest in  the  subject  but  who  are  unable  at  the  time 
to  undertake  a  deeper  or  more  detailed  study  than  the 
survey  here  presented.  Certain  characteristics  which 
have  been  kept  in  view  ought,  perhaps,  to  be  mentioned. 

1.  It  is  intended  to  be  of  practical  assistance  to  the 
teacher  in  giving  him  a  better  understanding  of  present- 
day  problems  in  education.  Unless  the  history  of  edu- 
cation throws  light  upon  the  educational  principles  and 
practices  of  today,  it  has  only  an  academic  interest 
and  should  not  be  a  prescribed  subject  in  the  training 
of  a  teacher.  A  series  of  questions  and  of  topics  for 
study  has  been  put  at  the  end  of  each  chapter,  therefore, 
to  suggest  further  study  in  the  relation  of  the  content 
to  the  problems  that  confront  us  today,  and  to  make 
clear  the  manner  in  which  past  experience  may  help  to 
clarify  present  theories  and  practices.  Each  chapter  is 
also  prefaced  by  an  outline  to  enable  the  student  better 
to  understand  the  facts  of  the  text.  Illustrations,  where 
they  have  served  to  elucidate  the  text,  have  been  inserted. 

vii 


PREFACE 

2.  It  emphasizes  modern  education  without  slighting 
any  other  period.     Attention  is  directed  to  the  rapid 
changes  that  have  taken  place  in  educational  organiza- 
tion and  practice  since  Rousseau,  and  particularly  to 
the  tendencies  of  the  present  day.    Moreover,  the  longest 
chapter  of  the  book  is  the  one  devoted  to  the  develop- 
ment of  American  education. 

3.  It  is  a  history  of  education,  not  a  history  of  peda- 
gogy.   Nevertheless,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  give 
an  adequate  view  of  classroom  practices  and  of  methods 
cf  administration  in  the  evolution  from  the  relatively 
simple  systems  of  the  past  to  the  complicated  and  de- 
tailed systems  of  the  present.    To  avoid  burdening  the 
memory  with  mere  names  and  dates,  attention  has  been 
concentrated  upon  the  typical  leader  or  leaders  in  each 
period;  and  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  understanding, 
the  social  background  of  each  individual,   institution, 
or  movement  studied  has  been  carefully  described. 

4.  It  aims  to  explain  how  Western  civilization  devel- 
oped the  educational  ideals,  content,  organization,  and 
practices  which  characterize  it  today.     For  that  rea- 
son ancient  systems  like  the  Chinese  or  Hindu,  which 
did  not  contribute  directly  to  Western  culture  and  educa- 
tion, are  not  considered  at  all,  and  the  Spartan  receives 
but  a  passing  notice.     On  the  other  hand,  the  Jewish 
system,  from  which  Western  culture  received  so  large 
a  contribution  in  the  form  of  religion,  ethics,  and  lit- 
erature, is  treated  somewhat  fully. 

5.  It  has  for  its  primary  purpose  the  explanation 
of  the  way  in  which  each  people  has  worked  out  the 
solution  of  the  great  problem  that  has  confronted  every 
people  at  all  times,  in  all  places,  and  in  all  stages  of 
development,   namely,  the  reconciliation  of  individual 
liberty  with  social  stability;  and  of  the  way  in  which 

viii 


PREFACE 

each  has  organized  its  education,  to  prepare  the  indi- 
vidual to  live  in  accordance  with  that  solution.  When 
a  people's  political  and  social  ideals  changed,  its  sys- 
tem of  education  changed  to  conform  to  the  new  ideals. 
Similarly  every  great  thinker  who  has  written  upon  edu- 
cation has  emphasized  either  social  control,  as  did  Plato 
in  the  "Republic/'  or  individual  freedom,  as  did  Rous- 
seau in  the  * '  Emile. ' '  One  must  always  have  this  prob- 
lem in  view  if  he  is  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  the 
evolution  of  modern  education. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  I  am  greatly  indebted  to 
several  of  my  colleagues  in  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York.  Professor  Harry  C.  Krowl  read  the  entire 
manuscript,  and  Dr.  Barclay  W.  Bradley  and  Mr.  Philip 
R.  V.  Curoe  read  both  manuscript  and  proof.  Every 
opinion  and  statement  made  in  the  book  are  my  own, 
but  the  criticisms  as  to  the  content  and  its  organiza- 
tion made  by  these  gentlemen  have  been  most  helpful. 
Professor  Paul  Monroe's  "Text-book  in  the  History  of 
Education,"  Professor  Frank  P.  Graves'  "History  of 
Education,"  and  Professor  Samuel  C.  Parker's  "His- 
tory of  Modern  Elementary  Education ' '  have  been  at  all 
times  sources  of  suggestion  which  I  gratefully  acknowl- 
edge. In  spite  of  my  effort  to  be  accurate,  errors  may 
have  crept  into  the  text,  for  which  I  must  beg  the  indul- 
gence of  the  reader.  If  the  book  should  impress  upon  the 
general  reader  the  conviction  that  educating  its  citizens 
is  the  most  important  function  of  the  state,  and  upon  the 
prospective  teacher  the  conviction  that  he  is  destined  to 
engage  in  the  noblest  of  professions,  I  shall  feel  repaid 
for  the  labor  spent  upon  it. 

STEPHEN  PIERCE  DUGGAN 


CONTENTS 

PART   I 
EDUCATION  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES 

CHAPTEK  PAGE 

I.  INTRODUCTION        ......  3 

n.  JEWISH  EDUCATION 7 

III.  GREEK  EDUCATION 15 

IV.  GREEK  EDUCATION  (CONTINUED)     ...  31 
V.  ROMAN  EDUCATION 51 

VI.     EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION          ...      67 

PART  II 

EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 
VII.     EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  ...      77 

PART  III 
THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD 

VUI.     THE  RENAISSANCE 113 

IX.    RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION       .         .     131 

X.    REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM:     REALISM  IN 

EDUCATION      ......     156 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

XI.    A  NEW  DEFENCE  OF  HUMANISM  :    FORMAL  DIS- 
CIPLINE IN  EDUCATION     ....     182 

XII.    RATIONALISM    IN    EDUCATION:     JOHN   LOCKE 

AND  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT  189 


PART  IV 
MODERN  TIMES 

XIII.  THE  EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMAL- 
ISM IN  LIFE  :  NATURALISM  IN  EDUCATION  : 
JEAN  JACQUES  ROUSSEAU  ....  203 

XIV.    PSYCHOLOGIZING    EDUCATION:      THE   METHOD- 

IZERS,  PESTALOZZI,  HERBART,  FROEBEL        .     222 

XV.  THE  QUESTION  OF  EDUCATIONAL  VALUES:  SCI- 
ENCE IN  THE  CURRICULUM  :  HERBERT  SPEN- 
CER   271 

XVI.    SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION  THRU  PHILANTHROPY 

AND  THRU  STATE  CONTROL        .         .         .     286 

XVII.     PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION  309 


PART  V 
NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

XVIII.    THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF 

EDUCATION 329 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 387 

GLOSSARY 389 

INDEX  .  .  391 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Didascaleum 17 

The  Palestra 17 

School  Materials  from  Wall  Paintings  ....  58 

Punishment          ........  58 

The  Medieval  System  of  Education  Summarized     .         .  83 

A  Page  from  the  "Orbis  Pictus"  of  Comenius         .         .  177 

Father  Pestalozzi 240 

An  Eighteenth  Century  School 240 

Showing  the  Child  Some  of  the  Human  Activities  Neces- 
sary for  Life 261 

The  Monitorial  System  of  Instruction  ....  292 

A  London  Dame  School  in  1870  .  299 


PART  I 
EDUCATION  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES 

Characteristics:  The  submergence  of  the  man  in  the 
citizen.  Education  for  civic  life,  hence  emphasis  upon 
the  arts  of  speech. 


CHAPTER   I 

INTEODUCTION 

MEANING  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Outline. — Historically,  education  is  the  means  by  which 
nations  have  attempted  to  realize  their  social  and  spiritual 
ideals. 

These  ideals  are  concerned  primarily  with  the  relative  em- 
phasis to  be  placed  upon  the  individual  and  upon  social 
control. 

In  the  East  the  emphasis  is  upon  social  control;  in  the 
West,  upon  the  individual.  In  the  East  education  is  pri- 
marily concerned  with  handing  on  traditional  knowledge;  in 
the  West,  with  securing  new  knowledge. 

This  book  treats  only  the  educational  systems  that  have 
directly  contributed  to  the  ideals  of  Western  civilization. 

From  the  standpoint  of  history,  education  is  the  means 
by  which  nations  have  attempted  to  realize  their  social 
and  spiritual  ideals.  Every  nation  that  has  faith  in  its 
ideals  wishes  to  have  them  transmitted  for  the  benefit 
of  its  own  posterity,  and  its  system  of  education  is  the 
instrument  by  which  it  tries  to  do  this.  Because  these 
ideals  have  been  different  in  the  several  nations  their  sys- 
tems of  education  have  differed.  And  because  the  ideals 
of  the  same  nation  undergo  change  its  system  of  educa- 
tion will  change. 

The  Individual  vs.  the  State. — Every  child  is  born  into 
society;  no  one  is  born  unto  himself.  Society  does 

3 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

not  consist  of  a  mere  aggregation  of  individuals  but  of 
individuals  organized  into  institutions  such  as  the  fam- 
ily, the  state,  the  church.  The  education  of  the  indi- 
vidual, therefore,  involves  making  him  conscious  that 
he  is  a  member  of  a  social  group  and  that  he  must  live 
in  relation  to  others,  i.  e.,  within  the  restrictions  of  so- 
ciety's institutions.  Therefore,  to  understand  the  sys- 
tem of  education  of  any  society,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
understand  its  institutions.  The  individual  feels  that  he 
must  have  a  certain  freedom  in  order  to  realize  his  being. 
Society  on  the  other  hand  feels  that  it  must  enforce  cer- 
tain restrictions  in  order  to  save  itself.  Thus  arises  the 
problem  of  the  state :  How  much  freedom  shall  be  given 
to  the  individual,  and  how  much  shall  be  taken  from 
him  ?  Thus  arises  also  the  problem  of  education :  How 
may  it  be  organized  to  develop  the  capacities  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  such  a  way  as  to  render  the  greatest  service 
to  society  ?  Each  nation  of  the  past  and  of  the  present 
has  had  a  solution  for  these  problems,  but  the  extremes 
of  difference  in  the  solutions  are  to  be  found  in  the  East 
and  the  "West. 

Characteristics  of  Eastern  Society. — In  the  East  the 
idea  of  the  unity  of  society  is  tenaciously  held;  the 
individual  is  suppressed,  his  destiny  is  controlled  by 
some  force  external  to  himself,  e.  g.,  ancestor  worship  in 
China,  or  the  caste  system  in  India.  Society  is  con- 
servative, it  holds  rigorously  to  the  past  and  views  with 
dread  any  change.  The  individual  is  meditative:  he 
turns  his  mind  in  upon  himself,  not  upon  what  is  ex- 
ternal to  him.  He  asks  why  he  is  here,  whence  he  came, 
whither  he  is  going.  The  result  is  that  the  East  has 
contributed  all  the  great  religions  to  civilization. 

Hence  the  culture  of  the  East  consists  in  its  traditional 
knowledge  accumulated  in  its  literature.  We  find,  there- 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

fore,  that  the  content  of  its  education  is  practically  con- 
fined to  the  literary  element,  e.  g.,  the  classics  of  the 
Chinese,  the  Vedas  of  the  Hindus,  the  Bible  of  the  Jews. 
As  the  word  in  which  the  truth  was  conveyed  be- 
came fixed  and  definite,  the  form  of  expression  became 
as  important  as  the  truth  itself ;  hence  the  chief  method 
of  learning  was  memoriter,  and  memory  was  the  mental 
power  which  subordinated  the  present  to  the  past.  The 
result  is  that  society  in  the  East  is  static.  That  this  is 
a  consequence  not  of  race  but  of  education  is  evident 
from  the  rapidity  with  which  the  Japanese  transformed 
their  social  system  after  the  adoption  of  the  content 
and  method  of  Western  education. 

Characteristics  of  Western  Society.— In  the  West  so- 
ciety is  progressive,  because  the  individual  is  exalted, 
not  suppressed.  Tradition  has  a  comparatively  small 
hold  upon  society,  and  reverence  for  what  the  ancestors 
did  has  but  slight  influence.  The  individual  is  not  medi- 
tative, but  investigative.  He  turns  his  mind  outward  to 
things  external  to  himself,  to  man  and  nature.  Hence 
he  has  contributed  science,  both  natural  and  social,  to 
civilization. 

The  aim  of  the  education  of  the  individual  is  to  enable 
him  to  realize  himself,  to  develop  to  the  utmost  what  is 
best  in  him.  The  content  of  education,  therefore,  is  not 
merely  literature  embodying  the  experience  and  ideals 
of  the  race,  but  also  science,  the  study  of  the  phenomena 
of  nature  and  society  as  they  present  themselves  today. 
And  the  method  of  learning  is  not  wholly  the  memoriter, 
but  that  of  observation  and  investigation.  The  indi- 
vidual is  taught  the  traditional  knowledge  and  customs 
of  society,  not  merely  that  he  shall  conform  to  them,  but 
that  he  shall  contribute  to  improvement  and  progress. 
Education  is  to  enable  the  individual  to  make  his  place 

5 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  society,  not  to  take  the  one  into  which  he  was  born. 
The  result  is  that  society  in  the  West  is  dynamic;  it  is 
there  that  civilization  has  witnessed  its  greatest  progress. 
Aim  of  This  Book. — It  is  impossible  in  the  short  sur- 
vey that  this  book  makes  to  consider  all  the  systems  of 
society  and  of  education  that  have  appeared  among 
men.  Some  principle  of  selection  must  be  adopted.  We 
shall,  therefore,  study  only  the  systems  of  education  of 
those  nations  which  have  contributed  directly  in  some 
way  to  the  ideals  and  educational  methods  of  Western 
civilization. 


CHAPTER  II 

JEWISH  EDUCATION 

Outline. — The  Jews  contributed  religion,  moral  ideals  and 
literature  to  Western  civilization.  Their  chief  educative  insti- 
tutions were  religion  and  family  life. 

The  period  from  the  Exodus,  c.  1500  B.C.,  to  the  Exile, 
c.  586  B.C.,  was  one  of  nationalization,  in  which  the  Temple 
worship  and  the  Prophets  played  an  important  part.  The 
education  of  the  individual  remained  a  purely  family  affair. 

After  the  return  from  Babylon,  the  Law  became  the  great 
factor  in  the  lives  of  the  people.  The  scribes  to  teach  it  and 
the  synagogue  as  the  place  of  instruction  in  it  became  impor- 
tant institutions. 

In  the  second  century  before  Christ  the  synagogue  school 
arose  to  give  elementary  education  with  especial  attention  to 
the  Law.  Higher  education  was  given  in  the  Rabbinical 
schools. 

From  the  Jews  Western  civilization  has  received  the 
following  contributions  to  its  spiritual  and  social  ideals : 
(1)  its  religion;  (2)  the  basis  of  its  system  of  ethics; 
(3)  the  most  important  part  of  its  literature,  the 
Bible. 

Institutions  Which  Were  Educative.— -The  two  institu- 
tions which  received  emphasis  among  the  Jews  were 
religion  and  family  life.  Religion  was  synonymous  with 
patriotism.  Jehovah  was  the  God  of  Israel.  Loyalty  to 
Him  was  loyalty  to  the  nation.  Even  after  Jehovah  as 
the  greatest  of  all  gods  evolved  into  Jehovah  as  the  only 

7 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

universal  God,  the  Jews  remained  His  chosen  people. 
Man  was  made  in  His  likeness  and  personal  holiness 
before  Him  became  the  end  of  man's  existence.  The 
attainment  of  character,  not  knowledge,  was  the  aim 
of  life.  Chastity  as  an  element  of  holiness  resulted  in 
a  higher  regard  for  woman  than  was  found  among  any 
other  ancient  people.  The  mother  as  well  as  the  father 
was  honored.  Children  were  welcomed  as  blessings. 
Religion  and  the  family  both  emphasized  the  moral  side 
of  life. 

Historical  Survey. — There  were  three  great  crises  in 
Jewish  history:  (1)  the  Exodus  from  Egypt,  c.  1500 
B.C.;  (2)  the  exile  to  Babylon,  586  B.C.;  (3)  the  de- 
struction of  the  Temple  by  Titus,  70  A.D. 

Before  the  Exodus  the  Jews  were  in  the  family  stage 
of  development,  i.  e.,  they  consisted  of  an  aggregation 
of  families.  The  status  of  the  father  was,  as  with  all 
early  peoples,  that  of  ruler,  priest,  and  teacher.  The 
first  differentiation  of  function  took  place  at  the  Exodus, 
when,  according  to  the  Bible,  the  tribe  of  Levi  was  set 
aside  for  various  religious  functions  and  the  house  of 
Aaron  to  furnish  the  priests  and  the  high  priests.  But 
the  teaching  of  the  child  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
parent  and  consisted  solely  in  the  training  in  family 
duties,  secular  and  religious. 

The  period  from  the  Exodus  to  the  Exile  was  a  period 
of  nationalization.  The  Jews  went  into  Palestine  organ- 
ized into  tribes  which  fought  among  themselves  when 
not  united  against  the  common  foe.  During  all  this 
period  the  great  symbol  of  unity,  and  at  the  same  time 
one  of  the  chief  educative  influences,  was  the  Temple 
and  its  worship.  Three  times  a  year  every  male  Jew 
was  expected  to  visit  the  Temple  in  person,  and  this 
practice  had  the  same  nationalizing  influence  upon 

8 


JEWISH  EDUCATION 

the  Jews  as  had  the  Olympic  games  upon  the  Greeks. 

The  Prophets. — Towards  the  close  of  this  period  an- 
other educational  influence  which  had  arisen  acquired 
its  greatest  influence,  viz.,  the  schools  of  the  Prophets. 
Religion  had  become  truly  monotheistic  and  ethical,  but 
because  of  the  greater  attractiveness  of  the  sensual  and 
non-moral  religions  about  them,  the  Jews  were  con- 
stantly in  danger  of  falling  from  the  worship  of  Jehovah. 
The  Prophets,  who  were  laymen,  arose  as  teachers  of 
righteousness  to  recall  the  Jews  from  religious  and  moral 
backsliding.  With  their  immediate  followers  they 
formed  schools  from  which  radiated  many  good. influ- 
ences. For  the  Prophets  taught  noUaerely  the  necessity 
of  personal  holiness  before  the  Lord,  but  the  equally  im- 
portant necessity  of  justice  between  man  and  man.  They 
formed  at  times  the  opposition  party  in  the  state.  As 
Jehovah  was  at  that  time  emphatically  a  national  god, 
the  Prophets  also  had  a  strong  nationalizing  influence. 
They  were  religious  seers  and  social  reformers,  who 
brought  their  followers  together  at  various  places  to 
deepen  their  religious  insight  and  fervor,  before  trav- 
eling among  the  common  people  to  spread  a  greater 
knowledge  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah  and  loyalty  to 
it.  It  is  in  this  sense  only  that  the  word  "school"  is 
here  used. 

The  Exile. — The  warnings  of  the  Prophets  were  not 
heeded;  and  the  Jews  went  into  the  Captivity,  from 
which  they  learned  a  lesson  of  great  national  and  educa- 
tional importance.  They  had  been  taken  away  from  Pal- 
estine, and  the  Temple  had  been  destroyed,  and  yet  they 
had  remained  united.  Why  ?  Because  of  the  observance 
of  Hie  Law.  Shortly  before  their  removal  to  Babylon, 
King  Josiah  had  caused  to  be  reduced  to  writing  the  Pen- 
tateuch, which  he  made  an  authoritative  code  of  laws. 

9 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

This  code  was  the  bond  of  union  among  the  people  dur- 
ing the  Exile,  and  many  additions  were  made  to  it, 
especially  from  the  teachings  of  the  Prophets.  After 
the  return  of  the  Jews  to  Palestine  under  Ezra,  the 
Law  became  the  central  fact  in  their  lives,  and  its  study 
and  observance  the  most  important  duty.  Two  institu- 
tions arose  with  which  it  was  associated : 

1.  The  scripture-scholars,  or  so-called  "scribes,"  the 
professional  class  of  teachers  who  were  to  have  the  Law 
in  charge. 

2.  The  synagogue,  the  institution  established  as  the 
place  for  its  exposition.     In  every  village  among  the 
Jews  this  institution  was  now  founded,  where  twice  on 
the  Sabbath  the  people  were  assembled  to  listen  to  an 
exposition  of  the  Law.  It  can  be  understood  readily  what 
an  educational  influence  this  would  have  upon  the  people. 
The  Sabbath  itself  was  a  unique  institution  in  the  ancient 
period,  of  incalculable  benefit  to  all  the  people.    As  time 
went  on  the  scribes  and  the  priests  were  held  in  equal 
veneration. 

The  duty  of  the  scribes  was  threefold:  (1)  To  ex- 
amine and  teach  the  Law.  (2)  To  apply  the  Law  to  the 
daily  lives  of  the  people.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
the  Jewish  Law  was  a  mixture  of  criminal,  civil,  sani- 
tary, and  ceremonial  laws.  It  can  readily  be  seen  how 
deciding  the  way  it  should  be  applied  to  the  daily  lives 
of  the  people  gave  the  scribes  enormous  power.  (3) 
To  interpret  the  Law.  When  the  Jews  were  supposed 
to  have  received  the  Law,  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus, 
they  were  a  nomadic,  pastoral  people.  They  had  mean- 
time become  an  agricultural  people  and  had  also  engaged 
in  trade  and  commerce.  The  Law  that  had  been  given 
to  them  had  to  be  interpreted  to  conform  to  new  condi- 
tions. These  interpretations  of  the  Law,  with  the  com- 

10 


JEWISH  EDUCATION 

mentaries  written  upon  them  in  later  times,  form  the 
Talmud,  which,  in  the  period  after  the  dispersion, 
became  almost  of  equal  importance  with  the  Law  it- 
self. 

Elementary  Education:  The  Synagogue  School. — With 
the  passing  of  time  it  became  increasingly  evident  to 
the  Jewish  leaders  that  the  existence  of  Israel  as  a 
nation  would  depend,  not  upon  its  ability  to  defend  itself 
physically  against  foreign  military  forces,  but  spiritually 
against  foreign  social  influences.  The  nation  was  to  be 
preserved  through  a  knowledge  and  practice  of  the 
Law,  and  transmitting  it  to  the  child  could  no  longer 
be  left  to  the  parent,  who  might  be  careless  or  indifferent. 
A  great  reverence  arose  for  the  rabbis,  i.  e.,  the  scribes 
who  became  experts  in  the  Law.  The  necessity  for 
schools  in  which  the  youths  were  to  receive  instruction 
in  this  bond  of  union  was  admitted  by  all,  and  in  the 
second  century  before  Christ  elementary  schools  became 
attached  to  the  synagogue  in  many  villages.  Finally, 
A.D.  64,  the  High  Priest,  Joshua  ben  Gamala,  ordered  the 
establishment  of  an  elementary  school  in  every  village. 
Attendance  was  to  be  compulsory  for  male  children,  and 
the  school  period  was  between  the  ages  of  six  and  fif- 
teen. An  education  somewhat  similar  to  that  given 
in  the  synagogue  school,  tho  not  so  intensive, 
was  provided  for  girls  at  home,  in  addition  to  instruc- 
tion in  household  duties.  This  resulted  from  the 
relatively  high  position  held  by  women  among  the 
Jews. 

Content  and  Method  of  Study. — Great  care  was  taken  by 
the  Jews  in  the  selection  of  teachers  for  these  elementary 
schools.  They  were  of  necessity  scribes,  married  men 
of  maturity  and  character.  They  usually  pursued  some 
other  vocation  in  addition  to  teaching  and  were  willing 

11 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  give  instruction  gratis,  tho  accepting  what  their 
pupils  could  donate.  They  were  held  in  the  highest 
esteem  among  the  people,  being  regarded  as  the  real 
defenders  of  the  nation,  just  as  warriors  were,  among 
other  peoples.  The  school  equipment  was  very  simple. 
The  children  sat  upon  benches  facing  the  teacher  who 
was  supposed  to  have  in  charge  a  group  of  not  more 
than  twenty-five.  The  children  were  seldom  provided 
with  books,  which  were  costly,  but  had  wax  tablets  and 
a  stilus  with  which  to  learn  writing.  The  school  day 
was  from  morning  until  evening  with  a  recess  at  mid- 
day, and  the  only  vacations  were  feast  and  fast  days. 
The  content  of  school  work  was  instruction  in  reading, 
writing,  counting,  and  the  history  of  their  people,  the 
poetry  of  the  Psalms,  memorizing  the  Law  as  found 
in  the  Pentateuch,  and  the  Mishna  or  oral  law.  In 
addition  every  boy  had  to  learn  some  form  of  handi- 
craft. As  with  most  peoples  before  the  invention  of 
printing,  the  method  of  teaching  was  chiefly  oral  instruc- 
tion and  the  method  of  study  learning  by  heart.  The 
teachers  were  skillful  in  correlating  the  various  memories 
— visual,  auditory,  and  muscular — upon  a  passage  to 
be  learned,  and  made  extensive  use  of  mnemonic  devices 
and  frequent  repetition.  The  discipline  was  probably 
rigorous.1 

Higher  Education. — Even  before  the  establishment  of 
the  elementary  schools  institutions  for  higher  education 
had  developed  for  the  instruction  of  the  scribes.  These 
"houses  of  instruction"  were  at  first  established  in  the 
homes  of  prominent  scribes,  and  were  of  the  nature  of 
colleges  devoted  to  an  intensive  study  of  the  Law  and, 
in  the  later  period,  of  the  Law  and  the  Talmud.  The 

lrThe  student  is  advised  to  compare  the  work  of  the  syna- 
gogue school  with  that  of  the  Greek  music  school  on  page  22. 

12 


JEWISH  EDUCATION 

method  of  teaching  was  that  of  exposition  upon  the  part 
of  the  master  and  afterwards  of  question  and  disputa- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  In  all  probability,  how- 
ever, the  work  was  quite  dogmatic  in  character  and  the 
interpretation  of  the  master  was  accepted  without  much 
question.  The  strained  interpretations  and  quibbling 
necessary  to  make  a  passage  render  a  meaning  to  con- 
form to  new  conditions  and  advancing  moral  ideals 
would  naturally  sharpen  the  wits  and  develop  a  habit 
of  close  study.  After  the  introduction  of  Greek  culture 
— that  dissolvent  influence  upon  the  Eastern  world — 
with  elements  of  education,  such  as  art,  science,  and  phi- 
losophy, unprovided  by  the  Jewish  system,  and  with  its 
skeptical  attitude  of  mind,  the  unquestioning  acceptance 
of  authoritative  interpretation  seemed  to  the  leaders  of 
the  patriotic  party  an  absolute  necessity.  This  had  a 
very  narrowing  and  formalizing  influence  on  life  and 
education. 

Results  of  Jewish  Education, — Jewish  education  con- 
formed to  Kastern  ideals,  but  with  a  difference.  The 
individual  was  subordinated  and  his  destiny  wajL  de- 
termintKTT)y  a  power  external  to  himself;  that  power 
was  God.  Education  consisted  in  transmitting  the  re- 
ligious literature  chiefly  by  a  memoriter  and  unques- 
tioning method ;  but  the  saying  "feature  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem was  that  the  Jew  was  taught  to  make  holiness  before 
the  Lord  the  aim  of  his  daily  life.  If  the  Jew  was  not 
as  free  and  versatile  as  the  Greek,  he  was  more  moral 
and  stable.  The  great  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  a  study 
of  Jewish  history  and  education  is  that  not  an^national 
peculiarity  but  a  strict  adherencg'jo^ftfr  educational 
system  Jhavmg^  a  peculiar^^highjmoraj^ideal  has  pre- 
served jthe  unity  of  the  race.  The  salvation  of^  a  people 
is  depen3ei^"uiponrits  education. 

13 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Article  on  Jewish  Education  in  Monroe's  Cyclopedia  of 
Education. 

Article  on  Education  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  VIII. 

DAVIDSON,  T.    A  History  of  Education,    pp.  74-86. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.     A  History  of  Education.    Book  1,  Chap.  II. 

LAURIE,  S.  S.    Pre-Christian  Education.    The  Semitic  Race. 

LEIPZIGER,  H.  M.    Education  of  the  Jews. 

QUESTIONS,   COMPARISONS,   AND   TOPICS   FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Compare  the  attitude  of  the  Jews  towards  mnemonic 
devices  with  that  of  educators  today. 

2.  What  can  be  said  in  favor  of  the  position  taken  by  the 
Jews    and    by   modern    education   towards    the    demand   for 
maturity  in  a  beginning  teacher? 

3.  What   requirements   can   modern    education   justifiably 
demand  of  a  teacher  in  addition  to  those  of  maturity,  scholar- 
ship, and  character  demanded  by  the  Jews? 

4.  What  is  the  value  of  committing  to  memory  fine  pas- 
sages of  literature? 

5.  Compare   the   relative  importance  of  moral   education 
among  the  Jews  and  modern  peoples. 

6.  Compare  the  influence  of  the  rabbi  among  the  Jews 
with  that  of  the  minister  in  early  New  England. 

7.  Compare    the    effect    of    a    written    constitution    upon 
Americans   with  the  effect   of  an   inalterable  law  upon  the 
Jews. 

8.  Give  instances  in  nineteenth  century  history  of  nations 
realizing  that  "the  salvation  of  a  people  is  dependent  upon 
its  education." 

9.  Compare  the  work  and  influence  of  a  Jewish  prophet 
like  Isaiah  with  that  of  a  modern  revivalist  like  Whitfield. 

14 


CHAPTER    III 
GREEK  EDUCATION 

Outline. — The  Athenians  contributed  more  elements  to  West- 
ern civilization  than  any  other  ancient  people.  Their  insti- 
tutional life  was  highly  educative,  and  at  first  their  education 
aimed  chiefly  at  service  to  the  state. 

From  seven  to  sixteen  the  Athenian  boy  received  his  physi- 
cal education  in  the  palestra  and  his  intellectual  education  in 
the  didascaleum,  both  private  institutions.  From  sixteen  to 
eighteen  he  continued  his  physical  training  in  the  public 
gymnasium.  His  moral  and  intellectual  education  was  ob- 
tained thru  contact  with  elder  citizens.  From  eighteen  to 
twenty  he  rendered  military  service,  and  at  twenty-one  became 
a  citizen. 

The  changes  in  Athenian  life  resulting  from  the  Persian 
Wars  offered  great  opportunities  for  individual  self-advance- 
ment. To  secure  this  a  different  kind  of  preparation  was 
needed.  This  was  furnished  by  the  Sophists,  whose  phi- 
losophy placed  a  great  emphasis  upon  the  individual  and  whose 
education  emphasized  the  arts  of  speech. 

Greek  Contributions  to  Western  Civilization. — The 
Greek  bequest  to  Western  civilization  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  other  ancient  people.  Greece  bequeathed  to 
us  art,  philosophy,  the  scientific  spirit,  and  a  splendid 
part  of  world  literature.  The  careful  study  of  no  other 
social  system  will  assist  the  modern  man  so  much  to 
a  wise  solution  of  his  own  social  problems.  The  educa- 
tional theory  and  practice  of  the  Greeks  have  most  sug- 

15 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

gestive  contributions  for  us  today.  This  splendid  her- 
itage came  chiefly  from  Athens  and  the  cities  whose 
ideals  were  nearly  akin  to  the  Athenian.  As  our  study 
is  confined  to  those  peoples  among  the  ancients  that 
have  directly  contributed  to  Western  civilization,  we 
shall  not  consider  the  social  and  educational  system  of 
the  Spartans.  Moreover,  the  purpose  of  Spartan  educa- 
tion was  the  same  as  that  of  the  old  Athenian  education, 
viz.,  the  education  of  the  individual  wholly  for  the 
service  of  the  state.  But  in  the  manner  of  accomplish- 
ment, the  Spartan  omitted  what  was  best  in  the  Athenian 
system  and  never  advanced,  as  did  the  Athenians,  to  a 
higher  conception  of  individuality.  Their  system  has 
few  lessons  for  us  beyond  that  of  warning. 

The  Problem  of  the  Individual  vs.  the  State. — The  solu- 
tion that  the  Ionian  Greeks  made  of  the  problem  of  the 
reconciliation  of  individual  liberty  with  social  stability 
differed  from  that  of  all  other  ancient  peoples.  Tho  the 
individual  lived  for  service  to  the  state,  it  was  recognized 
that  the  best  service  would  be  rendered  by  developing 
his  personality  in  every  direction.  Freedom,  therefore, 
characterized  Greek  life :  political  freedom,  for  the  city 
state,  though  socially  an  aristocracy,  was  politically  a 
pure  democracy;  intellectual  freedom,  for  the  Greek 
mind  investigated  without  regard  to  the  restraints  of 
authority  and  tradition;  moral  freedom,  for  the  action 
of  the  Greek  was  finally  determined  not  by  some  ex- 
ternal authority,  but  by  human  reason. 

The  Institutions  Which  Were  Educative. — The  institu- 
tions into  which  the  Greek  individual  was  born  were 
in  most  cases  highly  educative  in  themselves.  Among 
the  more  important  of  these  were: 

1.  The  Assembly. — Here  he  listened  to  the  debates  for 
or  against  the  laws  which  he  participated  in  making. 

16 


GREEK  EDUCATION 


THE  DIDASCALEUM 


THE  PALESTRA 

Reproduced  from  illustrations  taken  from  old  vases  by  Freeman 
in  his  "Schools  of  Hellas" 

2.  The  Juries. — As  every  citizen  sat  on  the  juries,  he 
obtained  the  education  which  came  from  seeing  applied 
in  practice  the  laws  which  he  helped  to  make. 

17 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

3.  The  Theater. — This  was  free  to  the  citizens,  and 
they  saw  played  there  some  of  the  greatest  dramas  that 
the  human  mind  has  produced. 

4.  The    Olympic,   Isthmian,   and   Nemean    Games. — 
These  were  religious  ceremonies  to  typify  the  likeness 
of  the  human  heing  to  the  gods.     Greeks  from  all  over 
Hellas  flocked  to  listen  to  the  finest  products  in  ora- 
tory, drama,  history,  and  poetry,  and  see  the  best  that 
could  be  produced  in  art  as  well  as  to  watch  the  con- 
tests in  the  games  proper. 

5.  The  Throbbing  Life  of  a  Greek  City.— With  its 
inquisitive,  disputatious  inhabitants,  this  was  an  educa- 
tion in  itself. 

Not  all  the  institutions  of  Greece,  however,  were  edu- 
cative from  the  modern  point  of  view. 

Greek  Civilization  Had  Its  Blots. — 1.  The  Economic 
Blot — Slavery. — The  fine  life  described  above  was  for 
but  a  small  part  of  the  inhabitants,  about  a  tenth  at 
Athens  in  the  days  of  Pericles.  Moreover,  slavery  re- 
duced all  forms  of  manual  labor  to  a  contemptible  posi- 
tion, tho  a  large  part  of  the  free  citizenry  was  engaged 
in  manual  occupations. 

2.  The  Social  Blot— the  Debased  Position  of  Women. 
— Woman  was  regarded  as  having  no  social  function  in 
any  other  place  than  the  home,  to  manage  the  household 
and  to  breed  children.    She  seldom  appeared  in  public, 
and  participated  little  in  the  active  life  of  the  times. 
The  Greek  male  lived  in  public  and  in  the  open  and, 
like  the  modern  club  man,  was  seldom  at  home.     His 
female  intellectual  companionship  was  found  among  the 
brilliant  hetcerce  whose  very  existence  emphasized  the 
low  state  of  family  life. 

3.  Lack  of  Humanitarianism. — Infant  exposure,  the 
contempt  for  the  cripple,  the  treatment  of  the  abnormal, 

18  <~~" 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

all  illustrate  this.  Some  of  these  defects  were  general  in 
antiquity,  but  in  the  practice  of  others  the  Greek  fell  be- 
low the  standard  of  the  Jew. 

4.  A  Non-Ethical  Religion. — The  Greek  religion  was 
largely  ceremonial ;  it  was  not  definitely  associated  with 
moral  instruction.  Service  to  the  city  state  was  the 
chief  sanction  for  good  conduct.  The  deities  in  which 
the  Greeks  believed  did  not  set  them  examples  of  moral 
action. 

Early  Greek  education,  like  that  of  most  primitive 
people,  was  a  family  matter  in  which  the  child  learned 
by  imitation  of  his  parent  the  work  he  was  to  do  in 
life.  Socially,  tradition  and  custom  held  sway,  and  every 
individual  was  expected  to  devote  his  energy  to  the 
welfare  of  the  state.  But,  unlike  Eastern  peoples,  stand- 
ards advanced  and  changed  as  the  result  of  the  actions 
of  individuals,  until  the  social  and  educational  system 
was  developed  which  prevailed  in  the  fifth  century  be- 
fore Christ.  This  development  we  shall  now  consider. 

THE  OLD  GREEK  EDUCATION 

The  Aim. — The  aim  of  Athenian  education  of  this 
earlier  period  may  be  best  expressed  as  the  production 
of  individual  excellence  for  public  usefulness.  The 
training  of  the  individual  was  for  social  service.  The 
virtues  of  the  Greeks  were  civic  virtues.  The  Greek  lived 
for  his  city  state.  But  his  education  developed  all  sides 
of  his  personality.  Attention  was  given  to  the  training 
of  the  body  as  no  less  important  than  the  training  of  the 
mind.  And  in  the  training  of  the  mind  attention  was 
not  merely  directed  to  the  intellectual  processes  but  to 
the  emotional  and  volitional  as  well.  One  of  the  finest 
characteristics  of  the  Greeks  was  their  sense  of  propor- 

19 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

tion,  and  it  was  prominently  in  evidence  in  their  edu- 
cation. 

The  Organization  of  Greek  Education. — Elementary 
education  at  Athens  was  not  a  public  function.  It  was 
the  duty  of  the  father  to  have  his  boy  educated,  and 
the  state  in  a  general  way  saw  that  the  duty  was  per- 
formed. But  the  school  was  a  private  affair  and  the 
pupil's  parents  paid  the  teacher  for  his  services.  As 
anyone  could  open  a  school  and  no  special  qualifications 
were  demanded,  incompetents  and  failures  in  other  walks 
of  life  sometimes  undertook,  as  in  our  times,  the  work 
of  educators,  with  the  result  that  the  teacher  was  not 
always  held  in  high  esteem.  Instruction  was  not  given 
in  a  single  building  as  with  us.  Physical  training  was 
given  in  the  palestra,  a  kind  of  open-air  gymnasium. 
Mental  training  was  given  in  the  didascaleum,  or  music 
school,  probably  situated  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  the  palestra.  It  was  usually  in  the  home  of  the 
teacher  or  in  a  public  building,  depending  upon  the 
number  of  pupils.  Instruction  was  all  individual.  The 
equipment  was  very  simple.  The  teacher  sat  higher 
than  his  pupils.  They  stood,  or  sat  on  stools,  and  had 
neither  tables  nor  desks.  The  walls  were  unprovided 
with  blackboards,  maps,  or  any  of  the  apparatus  we 
associate  with  the  school  of  today ;  but  upon  them  hung 
reckoning  boards,  writing  tablets,  reading  rolls,  and 
lyres.  The  school  day  among  the  Greeks  was  long,  last- 
ing from  early  morning  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  but 
mental  tedium  was  probably  relieved  by  alternating 
work  between  the  music  school  and  the  palestra.  There 
were  no  long  vacations,  but  the  frequent  festivals  in 
honor  of  the  gods  provided  many  holidays.  Tho  the 
discipline  of  the  Greek  school  was  probably  not  very 
severe,  corporal  punishment  was  used.  The  educational 

20 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

period  was  from  seven  to  sixteen  for  the  average  boy. 
The  girl  received  a  training  in  domestic  economy  at 
home.  Her  education  did  not  usually  extend  beyond 
this. 

Home  Training1. — As  in  the  case  of  most  peoples,  until 
the  age  of  about  seven  the  Greek  boy  stayed  at  home 
under  the  control  of  his  parents  and  nurses.  Greek 
women  of  the  home  were  usually  so  ignorant  that  in 
all  probability  children  were  badly  brought  up,  without 
proper  attention  to  habit  formation.  During  this  period 
the  child's  mental  acquisition  consisted  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  rudiments  of  religion,  morals,  and  manners.  Phys- 
ically he  was  developed  thru  play,  and  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  the  games  of  the  Greek  children  were 
practically  the  same  as  those  of  our  children.  The  girls 
played  jacks,  jumped  rope,  played  with  dolls.  The  boys 
played  ball  and  leap-frog,  spun  tops,  rolled  hoops.  When 
the  boy  was  sent  to  school  at  seven,  he  was  put  in  charge 
of  an  old  slave  called  a  pedagogics,  who  went  to  school 
with  him  and  stayed  with  him  until  his  return  home. 
The  pedagogus  was  responsible  for  the  boy's  conduct. 
He  was  to  see  that  he  did  not  play  truant,  that  he 
studied  his  lessons,  and  that  he  behaved  himself  prop- 
erly. Sometimes  he  was  the  chief  moral  force  in  the 
life  of  the  boy;  sometimes  he  was  chosen  for  this  duty 
because  he  was  fit  for  nothing  else,  and  in  that  case  he 
probably  had  little  beneficial  influence  on  the  develop- 
ment of  the  boy's  character. 

The  Palestra. — The  aim  of  the  training  in  the  palestra 
was  not  mere  strength  of  body,  not  even  that  in  addi- 
tion to  grace  of  carriage  and  movement.  The  Greek 
never  forgot  the  intimate  connections  between  mind  and 
body.  Physical  training  had  as  part  of  its  aim  to  make 
the  body  an  efficient  instrument  to  express  the  dictates 

21 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  the  mind.  The  various  physical  activities  were  organ- 
ized into  the  pentathlon,  which  consisted  of  running, 
jumping,  throwing  the  discus,  throwing  the  javelin,  and 
wrestling.  Wrestling  was  considered  the  acme  of  phys- 
ical training  because,  in  addition  to  bringing  every 
muscle  of  the  body  into  play,  it  supplied  a  mental  train- 
ing thru  the  need  of  quick  perception  and  judgment. 
Dancing  was  also  taught  because  of  its  value  in  making 
movements  gentle  and  graceful,  and  because  of  its  use 
in  religious  exercises.  It  did  not  resemble  modern 
dancing,  however,  but  consisted  of  rhythmical  move- 
ments of  the  whole  body.  Finally,  open-air  sports 
played  as  large  a  part  in  Greek  as  in  modern  English 
education. 

The  Music  School. — The  aim  of  the  music  school  was 
to  give  a  knowledge  of  music,  i.  e.,  everything  over  which 
a  muse  presided.  Music,  in  other  words,  was  a  synonym 
for  our  word  culture.  A  boy  began  his  school  work,  as 
with  us,  with  instruction  in  reading,  writing,  and  count- 
ing. Eeading  was  a  very  difficult  thing  to  learn  and 
took  a  long  time,  as  neither  accenting  nor  punctuating 
had  yet  been  introduced,  and  there  was  no  spacing  be- 
tween words.  The  attention  given  to  the  subject,  how- 
ever, resulted  in  the  Greek  boy  reading  with  remarkable 
accuracy  and  expression.  Writing  was  taught  by  means 
of  a  wax  tablet  and  a  stilus.  The  stilus  was  an  instru- 
ment pointed  at  one  end  with  which  to  make  the  letters, 
and  flat  at  the  other  end  with  which  to  erase  them.  After 
he  had  thus  learned  to  write,  the  boy  wrote  on  papyrus 
with  pen  and  ink.  Arithmetic  with  the  Greeks,  as  with 
all  peoples  until  the  Arabs  introduced  the  Hindu  nota- 
tion, amounted  only  to  counting.  The  Greek  system  of 
notation  consisted  of  their  alphabet  modified  by  diacrit- 
ical marks,  and  like  the  Roman  system  was  too  cumber- 

22 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

some  for  any  of  the  higher  arithmetical  processes.  All 
the  ancients  were  skillful  in  using  their  fingers  for  arith- 
metical purposes.  These  elementary  subjects  were 
learned  thru  imitation. 

The  important  subjects  in  a  Greek  boy's  mental  educa- 
tion were  literature  and  music  in  the  narrow  sense.  The 
textbook  for  his  literary  training  was  Homer,  of  which  he 
was  compelled  to  learn  whole  passages  by  heart.  Homer 
was  the  Greek 's  Bible.  From  it  the  boy  not  only  learned 
to  speak,  to  read  accurately,  and  to  appreciate  the  choic- 
est passages  of  literature,  but  also  received  his  moral  in- 
struction. The  aim  of  the  literary  training  was  to  enable 
the  boy  to  give  expression  to  the  feelings  contained  in  the 
text,  and  it  was  in  this  way  that  the  work  was  so  closely 
associated  with  music.  Music  was  not  a  distinct  art  as 
with  us,  but  subsidiary  to  literature.  The  older  boys  had 
to  improvise  their  own  music  to  express  the  idea  prop- 
erly. Great  emphasis  was  placed  upon  music  as  a 
source  of  moral  training.  Dictation  and  composition 
were  probably  other  elements  in  the  work  of  the  music 
school.  The  important  thing  to  notice  is  that,  altho 
the  method  of  learning  was  by  imitation,  the  aim  was 
always  to  develop  the  powers  of  expression,  not  merely 
those  of  receptivity. 

Higher  Education  for  Civic  Service. — Elementary  edu- 
cation occupied  an  indefinite  period,  according  to  the 
financial  ability  of  the  parents  to  keep  the  boy  in  school. 
At  the  sixteenth  year  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  passed  on 
to  higher  education,  which  carried  with  it  the  probability 
of  being  elected  to  positions  of  leadership.  This  higher 
education  was  under  state  control  and  supervision,  of 
two  years  duration,  given  in  the  gymnasium,  and  was  a 
preparation  for  military  service  to  the  state.  The  ele- 
ments of  the  pentathlon  were  organized  into  a  variety 

23 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  exercises  of  a  more  vigorous  kind.  The  boys  indulged 
in  boxing  and  the  pancratium,  a  combat  in  which  any 
means  of  winning  was  justifiable.  But,  altho  the  boy's 
direct  training  was  wholly  physical,  he  received  an  in- 
direct mental  training  of  great  value.  The  gymnasia 
were  situated  outside  the  walls  of  the  city  and  in  parks. 
These  parks  were  rendezvous  for  statesmen,  moralists, 
and  exponents  of  new  ideas.  Between  their  periods  of 
work  in  the  gymnasium  the  boys  went  out  into  the  park 
and  listened  to  these  men  expounding  their  favorite 
themes.  Too  much  emphasis  can  hardly  be  given  to  the 
value  of  the  association  of  the  boys  with  adult  citizens 
engaged  in  their  normal  activities  in  their  natural  en- 
vironment. They  thereby  learned  moral  standards  thru 
contact  with  living,  real  examples;  and  were  informally 
initiated  into  the  customs,  laws,  and  past  experience  of 
their  people.  Moreover,  tho  under  strict  supervision 
by  an  official  moral  overseer,  the  boys  had  a  very  wide 
liberty,  attended  the  theaters  and  law  courts,  listened  to 
discussions  at  banquets  and  in  the  market  place,  and 
participated  in  religious  exercises. 

Citizenship. — At  eighteen,  as  the  result  of  an  examina- 
tion into  his  physical  and  moral  qualifications,  the  boy 
became  an  ephebos,  i.  e.,  a  citizen  novice.  His  father  or, 
in  case  he  was  an  orphan,  the  state,  presented  him  with 
his  arms  and  he  took  the  ephebic  oath  of  loyalty  before 
the  assembled  citizens.  For  the  next  two  years  he  re- 
ceived his  direct  military  training,  at  first  near  the  city 
in  the  use  of  arms,  afterwards  on  the  frontier  in  the 
duties  of  a  soldier.  He  was  also  trained  in  the  conduct 
of  public  affairs,  and  participated  prominently  in  public 
festivals  and  religious  ceremonies.  At  the  expiration 
of  that  time,  as  the  result  of  an  examination  upon  the 
duties  of  citizenship,  he  became  a  full-fledged  citizen  and 

24 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

participated  in  the  institutional  education  spoken  of  in 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 

Results  of  Greek  Education.— The  results  of  Greek 
education  were  obtained  by  the  use  of  a  few  subjects 
actively  and  intensively  participated  in  by  the  pupils. 
The  subjects  that  are  considered  so  necessary  to  culture 
and  discipline  in 'modern  education  were  not  found 
among  the  Greeks  in  the  best  period  of  their  history. 
There  was  little  instruction  in  mathematics,  hone  in 
foreign  languages  or  in  science.  Even  grammar  and 
drawing  were  not  introduced  until  later.  It  was,  how- 
ever, a  learning  by  doing:  the  recitation  of  epic  poetry, 
the  singing  of  lyrics  and  playing  of  accompaniments, 
the  physical  exercises,  all  involved  motor  elements;  and 
the  intellectual  training  of  the  two  years  of  association 
with  adults  consisted  of  discussions  and  watching  men 
in  action.  It  is  a  question,  whether,  in  intellectual 
acumen,  emotional  appreciation,  and  volitional  accom- 
plishments, any  other  social  and  educational  system 
produced  a  finer  type  of  individual  than  the  average 
Greek  citizen  of  the  Periclean  Age.  And,  despite  its 
many  limitations,  in  what  other  society  was  there  made 
a  better  solution  of  the  problem  of  reconciling  indi- 
vidual liberty  with  social  stability? 

THE  NEW  EDUCATION— THE  SOPHISTS 

Changes  in  the  Social  Life  of  Athens. — The  Persian 
Wars  resulted  in  a  great  expansion  of  all  forms  of  human 
activity  thruout  Greece,  but  especially  in  Athens.  Athens 
assumed  the  hegemony  of  Ionian  Greece  and  became  the 
metropolis  of  the  Grecian  world.  Her  trade  and  com- 
merce grew  rapidly,  and,  as  a  result,  foreigners  in  large 
numbers  settled  within  her  walls  to  take  advantage  of 

25 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  opportunities  for  acquiring  wealth.  These  for- 
eigners brought  with  them  diverse  customs,  religious 
and  moral  views,  and  ways  of  looking  at  social  affairs. 
From  the  conflict  between  these  and  the  customs  and 
traditions  of  the  native  citizens  there  resulted  a  tendency 
to  question  and  reason  about  that  which  before  had 
been  accepted  unthinkingly.  Belief  in  the  gods  and 
their  control  over  the  affairs  of  men  began  to  yield  to  a 
search  for  a  more  rational  explanation  of  phenomena. 
This  change  was  reflected  in  morals  which,  having  lost  a 
religious  basis,  were  now  unprovided  with  any  basis ;  and 
in  politics,  where  birth  was  yielding  to  wealth  in  the 
privileges  of  citizenship.  Society  was,  in  fact,  in  a 
state  of  flux.  Moreover,  the  increase  in  governmental 
functions,  the  necessity  of  sending  diplomats  abroad 
and  military  and  civil  officials  to  the  tributary  states, 
offered  a  much  greater  number  of  opportunities  for  self- 
advancement  to  the  individual,  particularly  to  the  keen- 
witted and  unscrupulous.  A  parallel  can  be  drawn  be- 
tween the  social  situation  in  Athens  after  the  Persian 
Wars  and  in  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  "War. 
Only,  whereas  the  chief  opportunities  for  self-aggran- 
dizement in  our  country  since  the  Civil  War  have  been 
in  the  world  of  industry,  in  Athens  they  were  to  be 
found  in  civil  life,  the  only  field  of  activity  in  which  the 
Greek  Citizen  engaged.  And  just  as  the  great  expansion 
in  industrial  life  in  our  country  caused  a  remarkable 
change  in  higher  education  resulting  in  the  introduction 
of  new  subjects  of  study,  many  of  them  technical  and 
vocational,  so  a  similar  change  took  place  in  the  higher 
education  of  the  Greek  youth  to  prepare  him  for  the 
changed  conditions  in  social  living.  Moreover,  just  as 
with  us  the  young  men  have  flocked  to  the  new  teachers 
of  science,  causing  the  breakdown  of  the  old  classical 

26 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

curriculum,  so  were  the  new  teachers  at  Athens  received 
with  enthusiasm  by  the  youth  of  that  city. 

Character  of  the  Sophists.  —  These  new  teachers  were 
called  Sophists.  They  were  learned,  well-traveled  men, 
usually  non-Athenians  who  were  attracted  to  the  me- 
tropolis by  the  opportunities  to  teach.  They  were  dis- 
liked by  the  conservatives  chiefly  because  they  accepted 
pay  for  their  teaching.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  higher  mental  education  of  the  Athenian  youth  was 
indirect,  received  in  converse  with  the  best  of  the  citi- 
zens in  the  groves  of  the  gymnasia  and  elsewhere.  The 
aim  of  this  indirect  teaching  was  the  formation  of  char- 
acter, a  process  into  which  the  old-fashioned  Athenian 
believed  there  could  enter  no  financial  consideration. 
Another  objection  to  the  Sophists  sprang  from  the  con- 
tent of  their  teaching,  which  we  shall  consider  below. 

Aim  and  Content  of  Their  Work.  —  The  aim  of  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Sophists,  -was  ta  prepare-  the  indivi3uartb- 
conform_to^  the  changed_socml 


secure  his  personal  advancement.  As  there  was  no  press 
in  AthensTthe  chief  way  to  secure  influence  as  well  as 
political  and  civic  preferment  was  by  speech.  Hence 
the  chief  content  of  the  education  of  the  Sophists  was 
the  arts  of  speech,  and  Greek  civilization  owed  much 
to  them  in  the  organization  of  these  arts.  The^jtaught 
declflmalionjmd  oratory,  and  out  _qf  the  refinamant^of 
these  as  arts  developed  grammar  and  rhetoric.  How- 
ever, these  were  formal  studies,  and  in  their  application 
the  Sophists  took  their  material  from  politics  and  ethics 
chiefly.  It  was  their  point  of  view  in  these  latter  sub- 
jects which  gave  greatest  offense  to  the  conservatives. 

The  Principal  Source  of  Their  Offense.  —  Protagoras, 
the  chief  of  the  Sophists,  predicated  as  his  fundamental 
principle,  "Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things/'  Knowl- 

27 


THE 


HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


edge  must  be  individual  for  it  comes  thru  the  senses; 
and,  as  the  senses  of  no  two  individuals  are  the  same, 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  principles  or  truths  of 
universal  validity.  Each  individual,  therefore,  must 
determine  for  himself  what  his  attitude  towards  his 
neighbor,  the  state,  and  society  shall  be.  The  Sophists' 
method  of  teaching  was  chiefly  the  lecture  system,  the 
one  calculated  to  develop  a  habit  of  ready  acceptance 
rather  than  of  independent  thinking. 

Social  Results  of  Their  Work. — The  Sophists  thus 

placed  an  extreme emphasis  upon  individualism. 

Whether  the  disintegration  of  moral  standards  which 
was  synchronous  with  their  work  was  the  result  of  their 
teaching  is  a  question.  It  might  have  been  the  result 
of  the  changed  social  conditions  which  tempted  men  into 
a  scramble  for  self-aggrandizement.  Men  were,  of 
course,  glad  to  have  a  group  of  thinkers  provide  them 
with  a  philosophic  justification  Jor  their  views  and,  ac- 
tions. There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  their  teach- 
ing~expressed  the  change  in  the  relation  of  the  individual 
to  the  state.  The  view  that  the  entire  energy  and,  if 
necessary,  the  life  of  the  individual  w,ere  to  be  devoted 
to  the  welfare  of  the  state  gradually  disappeared.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  result  upon  society,  their  work 
broadened  the  intellectual  horizon  ~  and  enriched  the 
mental  dozffent  of  the  individual. 

Influence  Upon  Education. — Upon  higher  education 
the  influence  of  the  Sophists  was  profound.  The  em- 
phasis was  no  longer  upon  education  for  civic  duties, 
but  for  personal  advancement  and  pleasure.  Hence  the 
training  of  the  body  in  the  gymnasium  gradually  yielded 
in  importance  to  the  training  of  the  mind  in  the  lecture 
room.  The  Sophists  first  introduced  the  intellectual  ele- 
ments into  Athenian  education.  Tho  they  did  not  en- 

28 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

gage  in  elementary  education,  this  did  not  remain  un- 
affected. Literature  and  music  remained  the  staple  of 
instruction,  but  the  study  of  literature  for  its  moral 
content  gave  way  to  the  criticism  of  literary  form,  and 
music  as  primarily  a  training  in  morals  to  music  for 
pleasurable  effect.  In  the  palestra  the  severity  of  the 
training  was  much  relaxed,  and  aimed  at  esthetic  ef- 
fects more  than  formerly.  Education  became  more  a 
matter  of  the  schools,  in  which  learning  tended  to  super- 
sede doing. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Contrast  the  place  of  play  in  Greek  education  with  its 
place  in  modern  education.    Do  athletics  today  hold  a  larger 
place  in  American  education  than  did  games  in  Greek  educa- 
tion?    What  evils  attend  American  athletics  that  were  not 
present  in  Greek  games,  and  why? 

2.  Compare  the  place  of  music  in  Greek  education  and  in 
modern  education.    Is  music  taught  as  a  science  or  an  art  in 
the  elementary  schools  today?     As  which  of  the  two  should 
it  be  taught? 

3.  How  did  the  length  of  the  school  day  and  school  term 
of  the  Greeks  compare  with  ours?    Is  our  long  summer  vaca- 
tion justified? 

4.  Compare  the  education  of  the  Athenian  boy  during  the 
ephebic  period  (16-18)   with  that  of  a  continental  European 
under  military  conscription  (21-23). 

5.  Compare  the  influence  of  immigration  upon  American 
social  ideals  with  its  influence  upon  Athenian  social  ideals. 

6.  Compare  the  influence  of  the  Sophists  upon  higher  educa- 
tion in  Athens  with  the  influence  of  the  teachers  of  science  in 
the  United  States  after  the  Civil  War. 

7.  In  what  respects  did  the  methods  of  the  Sophists  resemble 
the  coaching  schools  for  civil  service  examinations  today? 

29 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

8.  Compare  the  emphasis  upon  expression  as  a  method  in 
Greek  education  with  the  emphasis  it  receives  in  modern  edu- 
cation. 

9.  What   institution   in    American   political   life   resembles 
the  assembly  in  Athens'?    Upon  whom  have  political  institu- 
tions had  the  greater  influence,  the  Greek  or  the  American1? 

10.  Does  the  state  today  exercise  as  much  supervision  over 
private  schools  as  did  the  Greeks'?    What  is  the  attitude  of 
the  state  towards  denominational  schools? 

11.  Do  modern  social  conditions  justify  the  great  emphasis 
upon   knowing  as  compared  to  the  emphasis  of  the  Greeks 
upon  doing? 

12.  What  was  the  influence  of  the  climate  and  topography 
of  Greece  upon  the  esthetic  development  of  the  people? 

13.  What,  if  any,  social  institutions  or  activities  of  Ameri- 
can life  today  have  a  bad  educational  influence? 

For  Bibliography  see  page  48  at  end  of  Chapter  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV 

GREEK  EDUCATION  (CONTINUED) 

THE  SEARCH  FOR  A  NEW  SOLUTION 

Outline. — The  Greek  educational  theorists,  Socrates,  Plato, 
and  Aristotle,  sought  a  new  solution  for  the  problem  of  recon- 
ciling individual  liberty  with  social  stability.  Socrates  found 
this  in  a  morality  based  upon  knowledge,  the  elements  of  which 
exist  in  the  consciousness  of  every  man.  A  new  method 
by  which  to  formulate  this  knowledge  was  necessary  and  this 
was  provided  by  Socrates  in  his  "conversational  quiz." 

Plato  maintained  that  the  knowledge  demanded  by  Socrates 
could  be  obtained  only  by  the  philosophers  who  could  pierce 
behind  what  was  phenomenal  and  attain  to  the  real.  He  sug- 
gested a  social  system  entirely  controlled  by  the  state,  in  which 
each  individual  would  be  educated  for  the  place  and  work  for 
which  by  nature  he  is  best  fitted. 

Aristotle  suggested  an  education  to  prepare  the  individual 
to  guide  his  conduct  in  association  with  his  fellow  men  by 
reason.  Up  to  seven,  the  education  would  be  almost  exclu- 
sively physical;  up  to  fourteen  it  would  be  devoted  to  the 
irrational  part  of  the  soul  and  aim  at  good  morals;  up  to 
twenty-one  it  would  be  devoted  to  the  rational  part  of  the 
soul  and  aim  at  intellectual  advancement. 

After  Aristotle,  Greek  education  followed  two  lines  of 
development:  one  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  rhetori- 
cal schools  which  prepared  for  the  practical  life;  the  other 
in  the  establishment  of  the  philosophical  schools  which  pre- 
pared for  the  speculative  life.  The  schools  in  the  course  of 
time  coalesced  into  the  Greek  universities,  the  chief  of  which 
were  at  Athens  and  Alexandria. 

31 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

A.     SOCRATES   (469-399  B.C.) 

Problem  of  Socrates. — The  Sophists,  as  we  have  seen, 
encountered  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  conservatives 
in  Athenian  society.  And  yet  it  was  evident  that  the 
old  institutional  basis  of  morals  had  gone  forever.  It 
was  equally  evident,  however,  that  the  negative  attitude 
of  the  Sophists  could  not  adequately  fill  the  void.  The 
problem  of  the  reconciliation  of  individual  liberty  with 
social  stability  and  welfare  had  still  to  be  solved.  Soc- 
rates undertook  to  find  a  new  basis  for  a  solution  in  a 
morality  founded  upon  knowledge. 

His  Solution, — Socrates  accepted  the  fundamental  pos- 
tulate of  Protagoras,  * '  Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things. ' ' 
Before  using  a  measure  of  any  kind  one  should 
understand  it.  Therefore,  said  Socrates,  "Know  thy- 
self. ' '  If  one  attempts  to  do  that  by  reflection  upon  his 
own  experience  and  that  of  others,  he  will  soon  discover 
that,  however,  individual  his  perceptions  may  be,  they 
have  more  points  in  common  with  the  perceptions  of 
everybody  else  than  points  of  difference.  In  other  words, 
the  materials  out  of  which  are  to  be  formulated  "whole 
thoughts"  and  principles  of  conduct  of  universal  valid- 
ity and  general  application  exist  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  individual. 

The  Aim  of  Education. — Hence  when  Socrates  accepted 
the  dictum,  "Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things,"  it  was 
not  what  was  individual  in  man,  but  what  was  universal ; 
the  truth  was  not  the  particular  opinion  of  the  indi- 
vidual man,  but  the  knowledge  that  is  common  to  all 
men.  To  lead  the  virtuous  life  it  is  necessary  to  have 
this  knowledge  of  universal  validity.  Knowing  the 
right  will  be  followed  by  doing  the  right.  Knowledge  is 
virtue.  The  aim  of  education  is: 

32 


GKEEK  EDUCATION 

1.  To  show  that  knowledge  is  at  the  basis  of  right 
action  in  all  the  arts,  including  the  art  of  living,  which 
chiefly  interested  Socrates.    Tho  not  everybody  has  the 
knowledge  of  the  right,  everybody  has  the  power  latent 
within  him  to  arrive  at  that  knowledge. 

2.  To  develop  that  power,  viz.,  the  power  of  correct 
thinking. 

His  Method. — This  cannot  be  done  by  the  lecture 
method  of  the  Sophists,  which  Socrates  considered  gave 
only  information,  second-hand  knowledge.  He  substi- 
tuted, therefore,  his  conversational  quiz: 

.    I  Ironic — destructive   element 
oocratic    Dialectics    ,,  .  ,.        , 

J    Maieutic — constructive  element 

In  practice,  Socrates  would  ask  someone  his  opinion, 
usually  about  some  chance  event  or  matter  of  daily  ex- 
perience which  he  could  turn  to  account  as  illustrating 
a  general  principle  of  conduct.  If  the  opinion  were 
wrong,  Socrates  by  a  series  of  questions  would  lead  the 
individual  either  to  a  reductio  ad  absurdum,  or  to  a 
contradiction  of  his  original  statement.  This  was  the 
Socratic  ironic  element.  Often  by  another  series  of 
questions  he  developed  in  the  mind  of  the  individual 
the  correct  idea  of  which  his  original  opinion  was  only 
a  part.  This  was  the  Socratic  maieutic  element. 
(maieutic,  giving  birth  to;  Socrates  called  himself  an 
intellectual  midwife.)  The  individual  was  first  led  from 
unconscious  ignorance  to  conscious  ignorance  and  then 
to  clear  and  reasoned  truth. 

Results  of  His  Work. — Socially  the  aim  of  Socrates  was 
to  rid  society  of  the  influence  of  mere  opinion  and  re- 
place it  by  a  knowledge  of  the  general  truths  that  under- 
lie right  conduct  in  all  the  activities  of  life.  In  the  indi- 
vidual he  aimed  to  develop  the  power  to  think  for  him- 

33 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

self,  to  arrive  at  his  own  knowledge,  to  attain  to  free 
personality.  In  education  his  work  resulted  in  a  great 
emphasis  upon  knowledge  and,  moreover,  upon  the  prac- 
tical knowledge  that  leads  to  correct  action  in  everyday 
life.  To  Socrates  the  study  of  nature  and  the  natural 
sciences  was  fruitless;  only  man  and  his  actions  and 
productions  were  worth  studying.  His  method  became 
the  dominant  one  in  higher  education.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
however,  that,  as  used  by  Socrates,  the  conversational 
quiz  can  be  applied  only  to  those  subjects  whose  content 
is  found  in  the  experience  of  the  individual.  One  can 
teach  psychology  or  ethics  in  that  way,  but  not  litera- 
ture, history,  or  science.  Moreover,  there  is  a  danger 
that  its  use,  especially  in  unskillful  hands,  may  lead  to 
quibbling  rather  than  to  truth.  This  use  of  the  method 
by  Socrates  led  to  his  undoing.  As  the  years  went  by 
the  number  of  men  convicted  of  hypocrisy  by  its  use 
and  held  up  to  public  ridicule  increased  until  they  were 
sufficiently  numerous  to  bring  about  his  downfall  upon 
the  false  charge  of  denying  the  existence  of  the  gods 
and  corrupting  the  morals  of  the  youth. 

B.     PLATO   (427-347  B.C.) 

Why  We  Study  Plato. — Socrates  wrote  nothing,  nor 
did  he  found  any  educational  institution.  What  his 
educational  views  were  are  discernible  by  a  comparison 
of  the  works  of  his  two  disciples,  Xenophon  and  Plato. 
It  is  sometimes  hard  in  Plato's  work  to  determine  what 
is  Socratic  and  what  is  Platonic.  But  in  the  dialogue 
called  the  ' '  Republic, ' '  his  work  on  the  ideal  state,  Plato 
in  his  ripe  manhood  contributed  the  first  systematic  ex- 
posjj;JQJXoJLthe  educational  problem  writtftp_in  the  VVesJ 
an  exposition  wEiclTTs  for  all  timelTfull  of  suggestive- 
ness  from  the  standpoint  of  educational  theory  and 

34 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

practice,  an  exposition  in  which  it  is  predicated  that 
education  is  not  only  a  function  of  the  state  but  the 
chief  function  of  the  state  as  well.  In  "The  Laws/'  a 
description  of  the  best  state,  written  in  his  old  age,  Plato 
rejected  many  of  the  political  and  educational  ideas  in 
the  "Republic"  aad^irj&ROsed  a  solution  based  upon  the— 
old  conservative  6reek  view. 

The  Philosophic^ .Basis  ot  His  Educational  System. — 
Plato  accepted  the  fundamental  principle  of  Socrates, 
viz.,  "Knowledge  is  virtue/'  Socrates  had  been  chiefly 
interested  in  the  practical  problem  of  developing  in  the 
individual  the  power  to  obtain  knowledge.  Plato  was 
interested  in  the  metaphysical  problem  of  the  nature  of 
knowledge.  Wl^atjs_knowled£e  ?  That  which  conforms 
to  reality.  But  jshaJL  is  reality  ?  The  answer  to  this 
brings  us  to  the  very  heart  of  Plato's  philosophy.  Real- 
ity cannot  be  the  merely  phenomenal,  that  which  is 
transient  and  temporary,  but  must  be  that  which  is 
permanent,  that  which  is  not  dependent  upon  sense 
perception  for  existence.  Everything  phenomenal  is 
patterned  upon  an  ideal,  so  that  however  much  the  indi- 
viduals of  any  class  of  phenomena,  e.  g.,  man,  may  differ 
in  details,  they  are  all  alike  in  their  resemblance  to  the 
ideal^oFldea  upon  which  they  were  modeled  and  the 
jreal  world  as  opposed^the  phenomenal  is  the  worl<i_ 
of  ideas.  We  come^  to^T  knowledge  of  tfte~~ptt«m5nienal 
world  by  means  of  our  five  senses,  but  to  pierce  beyond 
the  world  of  phenomena  and  come  to  a  knowledge  of 
what  is  real  requires  the  possession  of  a  sixth  sense. 
Only  a  very  few,  viz.,  the  philosophers,  possess  this  sixth 
seiise;  hence  only  they  know  what  is  real  as  against 
what  is  apparent.  Only  they,  therefore,  are  fit  to  rule. 

From  what  has  just  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  any 
phenomenal  thing  functions  properly  when   it  attains 

35 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


the  greatest  possible  resemblance  to  its  idea.  There  is 
a  specific  good  for  every  phenomenal  existence,  but  the 
supreme  good,  the  summum  bonum,  is  the  abstract  idea 
of  goodness  which  is  characteristic  of  all  kinds  of  good 
things.  The  knowledge  of  the  supreme  good  is  virtue; 
to  attain  that  knowledge  is  the  aim  of  life;  to  develop 
the  powers  to  attain  it  is  the  aim  of  education.  Now 
an  analysis  of  the  idea  of  man  shows  that  he  is  made 
of  three  elements : 


Elements 

Function 

Virtue 

Man 

Appetites 
Passions 
Intellect 

Support 
Defense 
Control     ( 

i 

Temperance 
Courage 
Wisdom  rj 

"When  these  three  elements  act  harmoniously,  i.  e.,  when 
they  illustrate  their  accompanying  virtues,  when  the 
appetites  are  devoted  merely  to  support  and  not  in- 
dulgence, when  the  passions  are  devoted  to  self-protec- 
tion and  not  foolhardiness,  wken  the  intellect  is  used 
exclusively  for  wise  guidance,  then  the  individual  func- 
tions properly  and  attains  to  his  end,  virtue.  Now 
''the  state  is  the  individual  writ  large."  Hence,  if  we 
analyze  the  idea  of  the  state,  we  find  three  elements 
corresponding  to  the  three  elements  in  the  composition 
of  the  individual.  These  are: 


Elements 

Function 

Virtue 

State 

Artisans 
Soldiers 
Rulers, 
(Philosophers) 

Support 
Defense 
Control 

Productivity 
Honor 
Wisdom 

36 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

The  state  will  function  properly,  therefore,  and  attain 
its  end,  justice,  when  those  three  classes  act  har- 
moniously, i.  e.,  when  the  artisan  class  supports  society, 
the  soldier  class  defends  it,  and  the  philosophers  rule  it. 
The  Educational  System  in  the  "Republic." — What 
system  of  education  should  be  organized  to  attain  these 
ends,  viz.,  virtue  in  the  individual  and  justice  in  the 
jrfote?  Plato's  answer  to  this  question  is  to  suggest  an 
ideaj^  society  organized  as  an  aristocratic  socialism.  The 
state  must  control  pyprytVnTij^  It  determines  who  shall 
marry,  marriage  being  a  mating  merely  to  breed  citi- 
zens. Family  life  is  abolished  and  the  child  at  birth 
becomes  Jhe  JP?opgrty_of_the  state..  The  state  decides 
whether  or  not  it  shalTbe  permitted  to  live.  It  is  not 
even  nursed  necessarily  by  its  own  mother.  The  or- 
ganization of  education  Plato  took  from  §nartaiL-^rac- 
Jdce;  the  content  from  Athenian  practice.  Until  seven 
years  of  age  the  child  is  developed  physically  thru 
play  and  learns  morals  and  religion.  From  seven  to 
sixteen  it  receives  in  the  state  school  a  training  similar 
to  that  given  to  the  Athenian  youth  in  the  palestra  and 
music  school,  with  slight  modifications  of  content.  Liter- 
ature is  to  be  purified  of  everything  tending  to  have  an 
immoral  or  irreligious  influence;  gymnastics  and  music 
are  to  be  practiced  primarily  with  the  view  to  improve 
the  soul.  At  sixteen,  the  first  differentiation  in  so- 
ciety takes  place.  Those  youths  and  maidens — for  the 
same  education  is  given  to  both  sexes — who  have  shown 
that  they  are  governed  chiefly  by  their  appetites  are 
drafted  off  into  the  artisan  class.  The  rest  continue  to 
be  educated  until  the  age  of  twenty  in  physical  training 
and  military  discipline,  and  then  a  second  differentia- 
tion takes  place.  Those  among  them  who  have  shown 
themselves  governed  chiefly  by  their  passions  are  drafted 

37 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

off  into  the  soldier  class.  The  remainder  continue  to 
be  educated  in  the  sciences,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
astronomy,  and  music,  i.  e.,  the  quadrivium  of  the 
medieval  period.  At  thirty  a  third  differentiation  takes 
place.  Those  who  have  shown  themselves  governed 
merely  by  their  intellect  are  put  in  charge  of  the  sub- 
ordinate positions  in  the  state.  The  few  remaining 
persons,  who  possess  in  addition  the  sixth  sense  for  ideas, 
continue  to  be  educated  for  five  years  more  in  dialectic 
philosophy,  i.  e.,  a  knowledge  of  "reality/'  At  thirty- 
five  they  enter  the  service  of  the  state  in  their  special 
work  of  ruling  and  continue  until  fifty.  Then  they 
retire  from  active  service  to  devote  their  remaining 
years  to  study  and  reflection,  the  highest  life  of  all. 

Value  of  Plato's  Educational  Ideas. — The  scheme  of 
education  advocated  in  the  "Republic"  is  based  upon 
the  fundamental  ethical  conception  that  every  person 
ought  to  be  engaged  in  doing  that  which  he  is  by  nature 
best  fitted  to  do.  It  follows  that  education  should  dis- 
cover in  the  individual  what  he  is  best  fitted  to  do  and 
then  provide  the  training  which  will  enable  him  to  do 
it.  The  individual  will  thereby  not  only  attain  to  per- 
sonal happiness  but  render  his  best  service  to  society. 
The  possibility  of  a  wrong  diagnosis  is  counterbalanced 
by  the  possibility  of  the  elimination  of  the  misfit.  It 
is  true  that  Plato's  division  into  classes  was  a  narrow 
one,  and  that  the  action  of  the  human  will  in  enabling 
the  individual  to  make  his  place  in  society  rather  than 
to  take  the  one  assigned  him  is  minimized.  But  the 
principle  of  selection  was  based  upon  worth  and  that 
must  always  be  the  basis  for  a  stable  and  efficient  organi- 
zation of  society.  Practically,  the  Platonic  solution  of 
the  problem  of  the  reconciliation  of  individual  liberty 
with  social  stability  would  result  in  the  suppression  of 

38 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

the  individual ;  but  theoretically  it  would  result  in  the 
best  harmony  of  the  two  factors  in  the  problem.  Edu- 
cationally, his  insistence  upon  the  acquisition  of  the 
theoretical  knowledge  at  the  basis  of  every  practical 
art  and  his  assignment  of  an  equal  place  to  women  in 
the  educational  scheme  put  Plato  far  in  advance  of 
his  time.  But  in  his  overemphasis  upon  knowledge,  in 
his  neglect  of  the  development  of  right  feeling  as  neces- 
sary to  make  right  knowing  result  in  right  action,  Plato 
did  not  rise  even  to  the  ideas  of  his  own  time.  It  was, 
in  fact,  because  he  was  out  of  sympathy  with  his  time 
that  the  "Republic"  had  practically  no  influence  in 
his  day.  But  in  its  emphasis  upon  the  contemplative 
life  as  superior  to  the  civic  life  it  paved  the  way  for 
Christian  asceticism,  and  its  vision  of  the  world  of 
ideas  in  turn  provided  the  early  Christian  philosopher 
with  a  philosophic  basis  for  many  of  his  "visions." 

C.     ARISTOTLE   (384-322  B.C.) 

We  study  Aristotle  (1)  because  he  had  a  greater 
influence  on  subsequent  times  both  in  the  thought  life 
and  in  education  than  any  other  man,  (2)  because  he 
represents  the  culmination  of  Greek  intellectual  life. 

The  theoretical  side  of  Aristotle's  views  on  education 
is  found  in  the  "Ethics,"  but  the  practical  and  more 
important  part  is  found  in  the  "Politics."  These  books 
are  written  as  scientific  treatises  and  have  not,  there- 
fore, the  literary  charm  of  Plato's  dialogues.  The 
"Politics"  is  a  fragment.  The  last  part  of  it,  that  deal- 
ing with  higher  education,  either  was  not  written  or 
was  lost. 

His  Relation  to  Plato. — Aristotle  was  a  disciple  of 
Plato,  but  he  differs  from  Plato  in  his  solution  of  the 

39 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

problem  of  the  reconciliation  of  individual  liberty  with 
social  stability.  Aristotle  denies  the  validity  of  Plato's 
fundamental  postulate  that  " knowledge  is  virtue."  He 
insists  that  virtue  is  an  accompaniment  of  doing,  not 
of  knowing.  His  denial  of  Plato's  position  is  based 
upon  his  rejection  of  Plato's  theory  of  reality.  Ab- 
stract ideas  for  him  have  no  existence  save  as  forms, 
and  we  can  attain  to  no  knowledge  of  them  save  as  they 
are  embodied  in  concrete  objects,  and  by  the  use  of  our 
five  senses.  Since  reality  does  not  consist  of  ideas,  man's 
highest  possible  attainment  is  not  the  possession  of  a 
knowledge  of  ideas,  nor  is  the  end  of  his  education  the 
securing  of  such  knowledge.  Virtue  is  attained  when 
a  thing  acts  in  accordance  with  its  highest  function. 
Now  the  highest  function  of  man  is  reason,  hence  to 
attain  his  end,  his  mmmuvn  bonum,  he  must  live  accord- 
ing to  reason.  But  man  is  a  social  animal.  Virtue  and 
happiness  will,  therefore,  consist  with  him  in  acting 
in  association  with  his  fellow  men  according  to  those 
principles  of  conduct  which  reason  tells  him  are  right. 
His  System  of  Education. — What  system  of  society  and 
of  education  will  best  realize  this  desideratum?  As  the 
result  of  a  comparative  study  of  a  very  large  number 
of  the  constitutions  of  states  which  existed  in  his  day, 
Aristotle  in  the  " Politics"  concluded  that,  tho  mon- 
archy is  theoretically  the  best  form  of  government, 
democracy  is  the  form  most  likely  to  be  exercised  for 
the  general  welfare.  But  it  was  democracy  injfche  purely 
Greek  sense,  a  city  state  based  Uj^^iavejxJn  which 
the  industrial  classes  should  be  excluded  from  citizen- 
ship. Altho  a  foreigner,  Aristotle's,  conceptions  both 
of  society  and^of  edi^atij)n-tipproach_much  nearer  the 
Athenian  ideals"  than  do  those  of  PlS^wEo  was~aTpure 
Athenian.  ^Aristotle  is  one  with  Plato  in  making  the 

40 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

of  its  citizens  ^he  chief  means  of  securing  the 
welfare  of  the  state ;  but  because  he  rejects  Plato's  con- 
ception of  the  ideal  state,  his  educational  scheme  neces- 
sarily differs  from  Plato's.  He  condemns  Plato's  de- 
struction of  the  family  and  family  life  and  also  the 
system  of  identical  education  for  men  and  women.  As 
man  and  woman  have  each  a  different  highest  function, 
they  must  have  differ  ent^education.  Thejnaintenance 
of  the  family  must  have  as  a  natural  corollary  the  educa- 
tion of  the  child  by  the  parents.  His  ejotire  education 
until  seven  years  of  age  is  under  theif~exclusTve  con- 
trol, and  his  moral  education^  is  always  to__be  a  part 
of  their  duty.  After  seven  the  child's  general  educa- 
tion is  to  be  publi<Tancl  controlled  by  the  state.  What 
is  the  nature  of  that  education? 

Aristotle  asserted  that  man  was  made  up  of  two 
parts,  body  and  soul,  and  that  soul  was  composed  of  an 
irrational  element,  i.  e.,  appetites,  desires  ancLpassions, 
and  a  rational  element,  I.  e.,  intellect.  Hence  education 
has  a  threefolcf  aspect,  physical,  moral,  and  mental. 
Formal  school  training  should  continue  from  seven  to 
twenty-one  and  be  divided  into  two  periods  by  puberty. 
The  first  period  should  be  devoted  to  the  training  of  the 
irrational  side  of  the  soul  and  the  second  to  the  rational. 
Aristotle  was  essentially  practical  in  his  point  of  view 
and  borrowed  his  content  and  method  chiefly  from  the 
prevailing  system  at  Athens.  Physical  training,  to  which 
attention  was  first  given,  was  to  be  secured  thru  gym- 
nastics and  to  have  as  its  aim  not  merely  strength  and 
grace  of  body,  but  the  development  of  habits  of  control, 
of  self-restraint.  Moral  education,  i.  e.,  the  education 
of  the  irrational  element  of  the  soul,  to  which  attention 
was  next  given,  was  to  be  attained  thru  literature 
and  music.  In  moral  training  practice  is  always  to  pre- 
41 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

cede  theory,  doing  the  thing  sought  before  reasoning 
about  it.  Then  when  habits  of  right  feeling  and  acting 
have  been  generated,  the  individual  must  be  taught  the 
rational  basis  for  them.  Thus  will  goodness  of  charac- 
ter, which  is  based  upon  habituation  and  which  is  attain- 
able by  all  citizens,  precede  goodness  of  intellect,  which 
results  from  the  instruction  of  the  rational  element  and 
is  attainable  only  by  the  leisure  class.  What  the  nature 
of  instruction  of  the  rational  element  would  be  we  cannot 
exactly  determine,  as  that  part  of  the  "Politics"  either 
was  not  written  or  was  lost.  But  we  judge  from  refer- 
ences in  other  parts  that  it  would  emphasize  mathematics, 
the  natural  sciences,  and  dialectic. 

Influence  of  Aristotle. — Aristotle  searched  for  truth  in 
nature  and  society.  He  maintained  that  it  was  to  be  got 
thru  observation  of  their  phenomena  confirmed  by 
reflection.  The  practice  of  this  inductive  method  made 
him  the  greatest  scientific  thinker  that  has  ever  lived,' 
and  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  sciences  of  physics, 
mechanics,  physiology,  and  politics.  As  a  basis  for 
thought  in  all  these  he  developed  his  ' '  Organon, ' '  the  sci- 
ence of  the  laws  of  thought,  i.  e.,  logic.  Unfortunately 
for  western  Europe  practically  all  his  works  except  the 
"Organon"  were  lost  to  it.  Hence  the  Middle  Ages, 
which  revered  his  name,  were  controlled  in  intellectual 
life  by  his  deductive  logic,  and  deduction  is  a  method  of 
confirmation,  not  of  discovery.  This  fact  added  to  the 
emphasis  which  that  period  gave  to  authority  and  tradi- 
tion. But  Mohammedanism,  which  was  much  influenced 
by  his  philosophy,  brought  it  into  western  Europe  via 
Spain.  In  the  thirteenth  century  it  was  at  first  used 
by  the  schoolmen  to  justify  existing  beliefs,  but  its  use 
led  to  an  encouragement  of  reasoning  dangerous  to  both 
authority  and  tradition.  Upon  his  own  time  Aristotle 

42 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

had  no  more  influence  than  Plato.  The  day  of  the  city 
state,  from  which  he  drew  his  ideals,  had  passed,  and 
with  it  went  the  old  Hellenic  ideal  of  the  citizen-man. 
Man  now  existed  for  himself  only,  and  social  stability 
could  be  secured  only  by  authority  from  without. 

RISE  OF  THE  QKEEK  UNIVERSITIES 

Triumph  of  Individualism. — Athens  was  ruined  by 
excess  of  individualism.  All  efforts  to  control  the  tend- 
encies of  the  times  proved  futile  and  Aristotle's  was  the 
last  attempt  at  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  reconcili- 
ation of  individual  liberty  with  social  stability.  Phi- 
losophy, which  had  hitherto  tried  to  formulate  a  practical 
ideal  for  social  living,  contented  itself  solely  with  the 
happiness  of  the  individual.  This  is  as  true  of  the 
noblest  Stoic  as  of  the  most  sensual  Epicurean.  Edu- 
cation, which  will  always  conform  to  a  change  of  social 
and  political  ideals,  now  devoted  itself  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  for  personal  happiness  without 
reference  to  social  relations.  This  was  not  accomplished 
without  a  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  finer  spirits  among 
the  Greeks;  however,  it  became  a  fact  long  before  the 
Roman  conquest.  We  shall  now  study  that  change. 

Course  of  Development  of  Greek  Education  After  the 
Sophists. — The  new  education  introduced  by  the  Sophists 
started  two  streams  of  influence  which  resulted  in  a  re- 
organization of  higher  education.  One  flowed  thru 
Socrates  as  a  channel  and  resulted  in  the  establishment 
of  the  philosophical  schools.  The  other  flowed  thru 
Isocrates  and  resulted  in  the  rhetorical  schools.  These 
two  institutions  became  united  in  a  loose  manner  in 
the  course  of  time  and  to  the  institution  thus  formed 
the  term  " University  of  Athens"  has  been  given  by  mod- 

43 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

era-  writers,  tho  this  name  was  unknown  to  the  ancients 
themselves. 

The  Rhetorical  Schools. — The  more  important  of  these 
two  institutions  was  the  rhetorical  school.  The  work  of 
the  Sophists  was  of  a  desultory  nature.  Each  Sophist 
was  a  free  lance  who  taught  without  reference  to  the 
work  of  any  other.  Isocrates,  who  nourished  in  the  gen- 
eration after  Socrates,  organized  the  work  of  the  Sophists 


Sophists  c.  425  B.C. 

<£ 

\ 

& 


Rhetorical  Schools  Philosophical  Schools 


University  of  Athens,  c.  200  B.C. 

into  an  orderly,  well-graded  system.  In  his  school  the 
student  was  taught  the  same  subjects  as  in  the  schools 
of  the  Sophists,  but  he  passed  from  subject  to  subject 
as  the  result  of  careful  preparation.  Isocrates  main- 
tained that  his  aim  was  to  enable  a  man  to  think  clearly 
and  express  his  thoughts  properly,  not  merely  to  win  in 
argument,  as  was  the  aim  of  many  of  the  Sophists.  His 
school  was  very  successful,  attracted  many  of  the  men 
who  afterwards  became  leading  statesmen,  and  served 
as  a  model  for  others.  Its  fame  helped  to  make  Athens 
the  intellectual  center  of  the  ancient  world.  The  sys- 
tem that  grew  up  was  very  similar  to  the  system  of  pri- 
vate schools  and  academies  that  has  grown  up  in  almost 

44 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

all  large  American  cities.  The  school  aimed  to  prepare 
a  man  for  the  vigorous  public  life  which  characterized 
the  Greek  citizen  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.  As  the 
interest  which  is  exerted  in  public  life  today  by  news- 
paper, pulpit,  bar,  and  platform  was  exerted  then  exclu- 
sively by  the  public  speaker,  the  power  of  effective  speech 
and  the  imparting  of  the  knowledge  of  the  day  to  make 
a  successful  man  of  the  world  were  the  ends  sought.  Tho 
at  first  'rigorous  and  thoro,  with  the  loss  of  political 
independence  the  work  of  these  schools  became  more  and 
more  formal-  and  stereotyped.  Nevertheless,  they  flour- 
ished thruout  the  whole  classical  period. 

The  Philosophical  Schools. — In  the  century  preceding 
the  Macedonian  conquest  the  very  turmoil  of  public  life 
which  attracted  the  active  spirits  of  the  day  repelled  the 
more  timid  and  contemplative. 

The  emphasis  placed  by  both  Plato  and  Aristotle  upon 
the  speculative  life  in  sequence  to  the  practical  life,  as 
the  highest  attainment,  was  now  placed  upon  the  specu- 
lative life  without  reference  to  any  practical  consider- 
ation. Four  great  philosophical  schools  were  founded 
in  the  fourth  century,  viz. : 

The  School  of  the  Academy,  founded  by  Plato,  386  B.C. 

The  School  of  the  Lyceum,  founded  by  Aristotle,  335 
B.C. 

The  School  of  the  Stoics,  founded  by  Zeno,  308  B.C. 

The  School  of  Epicurus,  founded  by  Epicurus,  306 

B.C. 

These  became  less  and  less  concerned  with  the  affairs 
of  practical  life  and  developed  into  kinds  of  religious 
brotherhoods  which  absorbed  much  of  the  devotion  that 
had  formerly  been  given  to  the  city  state.  The  schools 
at  first  consisted  merely  of  the  master  and  his  disciples. 
But  when  the  founders  of  these  schools  died,  they  be- 

45 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

queathed  their  wealth  and  manuscripts  to  the  schools 
and  selected  or  arranged  for  the  election  of  successors 
to  the  headship,  called  ' '  scholarchs. ' '  These  endowments 
provided  the  bases  for  permanent  institutions,  ad- 
ditional income  for  the  support  of  which  was  obtained 
by  charging  a  fee  for  membership  in  the  schools.  The 
schools  attracted  adherents  from  all  over  the  civilized 
world,  many  of  whom  upon  coming  to  Athens  found 
themselves  unprepared  to  enter  them.  The  result  was 
that  teachers  engaged  in  preparing  students  for  en- 
trance became  associated  with  the  schools.-  In  most  in- 
stances, after  the  death  of  the  founder  research  and  crea- 
tive work  ceased.  The  aim  became  more  and  more  to 
set  forth  the  views  of  the  founder ;  and  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Christian  era  the  work  had  become  as  formal 
and  artificial  as  that  of  the  rhetorical  schools. 

The  University  of  Athens. — In  the  meantime  great 
changes  had  taken  place  in  the  education  of  the  Athenian 
youth.  We  have  seen  that,  as  a  result  of  the  emphasis 
placed  upon  intellectual  education  by  the  Sophists  and 
of  the  trend  towards  individual  self-seeking,  the  physical 
training  in  gymnastic  and  military  drill  looking  towards 
service  to  the  state  began  to  lose  its  importance.  The 
period  of  service  was  first  reduced  from  two  years  to 
one ;  and  after  the  Macedonian  conquest,  when  there  was 
no  longer  an  Athenian  state  to  serve,  attendance  upon 
the  gymnasium  was  made  wholly  voluntary.  Admission 
to  the  ephebic  corps  was  granted  to  foreigners  and  the 
corps  became  a  kind  of  social  institution  with  a  military 
flavor.  For  the  compulsory  attendance  formerly  de- 
manded of  the  ephebes  at  the  gymnasium  there  was  now 
substituted  compulsory  attendance  at  the  lectures  of  the 
philosophical  schools  in  addition  to  voluntary  attendance 
at  the  rhetorical  schools.  Finally  when,  because  of  the 

46 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

danger  due  to  the  wars  between  Macedon  and  Rome,  the 
schools  of  the  Academy,  the  Lyceum,  and  Epicurus, 
which  had  been  without  the  walls,  followed  the  Stoics  into 
the  city,  the  Athenian  Assembly  granted  public  support 
to  them  and  began  to  exercise  a  control  over  the  selec- 
tion of  the  Sophists  or  professors.  The  union  of  the 
philosophical  and  rhetorical  schools  became  more  pro- 
nounced as  the  result  of  the  practice  of  the  early  Roman 
emperors  of  endowing  chairs  of  rhetoric  and  of  philoso- 
phy. The  years  of  attendance  of  a  student  were  pro- 
longed often  to  six  or  seven ;  and  student  life  resembled 
college  life  today,  especially  in  its  extra-scholastic  fea- 
tures. The  University  of  Athens  remained  the  stronghold 
of  paganism  after  the  advent  of  Christianity,  and  its  de- 
cline was  rapid  after  Constantine  made  Christianity  the 
state  religion.  Finally,  in  529  A.D.,  it  was  suppressed 
by  Justinian. 

The  University  of  Alexandria. — The  University  of 
Athens  was  not  the  only  Greek  university  of  the  ancient 
world.  As  the  result  of  the  conquests  of  Alexander, 
Greek  civilization  spread  thruout  the  East;  and  tho  it 
was  most  apparent  in  its  externals,  such  as  temples,  thea- 
ters, and  baths,  the  Greek  language  and  Greek  culture 
conquered  the  minds  of  men  more  effectually  than  their 
arms  had  conquered  governments.  Greek  universities 
arose  at  Rhodes,  Pergamus,  Tarsus,  and  Alexandria ;  but 
of  these  only  the  University  of  Alexandria  competed  in 
influence  and  prestige  with  that  of  Athens.  The  first 
three  Ptolemies  were  enlightened  statesmen  who  did 
much  for  the  advancement  of  learning.  They  instituted 
a  movement  for  the  collection  of  manuscripts  such  as 
has  never  been  equaled  in  history  except  possibly  dur- 
ing the  Renaissance.  As  a  result  there  was  founded  at 
Alexandria  in  280  B.C.  the  library  which  was  destined 

47 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  become  the  greatest  in  the  ancient  world :  according  to 
some  accounts,  it  contained  at  one  time  more  than 
700,000  "rolls"  of  manuscripts;  and  parts  at  least  of  it 
survived  until  Alexandria  was  captured  by  the  Moham- 
medans in  640  A.D.  This  library  attracted  scholars 
from  all  countries.  At  about  the  same  time  the  mu- 
seum was  founded,  an  institution  resembling  the  great 
scientific  research  institutions  of  today;  and  investiga- 
tors from  all  over  the  world  were  invited  to  study  there 
at  the  expense  of  the  king.  Much  of  the  work  of  Euclid  in 
geometry,  Archimedes  in  physics,  and  Eratosthenes  in 
geography  and  astronomy  was  done  there.  The  Ptole- 
mies also  endowed  numerous  chairs  of  rhetoric  and  of 
philosophy  which,  with  the  library  and  museum,  formed 
the  university.  Tho  in  its  earlier  period  it  was  renowned 
chiefly  for  science,  in  the  later  period,  especially  after 
Christianity  became  a  force,  it  was  the  center  for  phil- 
osophical speculation.  TJiis  naturally  resulted  from  its 
being  the  meeting  place  of  Greeks,  Jews,  Egyptians, 
and  scholars  from  the  Orient.  Here  the  Hebrew  scrip- 
tures were,  translated  into  Greek  (the  Septuagint)  c. 
250  B.C.  ;  here  Philo  the  Jew  attempted  to  harmonize  the 
Hebrew  scriptures  with  Greek  philosophy ;  here  the  early 
Christian  Fathers  established  their  great  "Catechetical 
School ' ' ;  and  here  most  of  the  heresies  that  rent  the  new 
religion  were  developed.  Nevertheless,  in  this  later 
period  most  of  the  work,  especially  in  grammar,  rhetoric, 
and  literature,  was  formal  and  artificial ;  and  in  philoso- 
phy it  consisted  of  fruitless  commentary. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  on  Greek  Education,  Sophists,  Socrates,  Isocrates, 
Plato,  Aristotle,  Athens,  and  Alexandria  in  the  Cyclopedia  of 
Education. 

48 


GREEK  EDUCATION 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  IX. 

DAVIDSON",  T.     Education  of  the  Greek  People. 

.    Aristotle  and  the  Ancient  Educational  Ideals. 

DREVER,  JAMES.     Greek  Education. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.    A  History  of  Education.    Vol.  I,  Chap.  XII. 

GROTE,  G.     History  of  Greece.    Chapters  LXVII,  LXVIII. 

LAURIE,  S.  S.     Pre-Christian  Education.    The  Hellenic  Race. 

MAHAFPY,  J.  P.    Old  Greek  Education. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
III. 

WALDEN,  J.  H.  W.    Universities  of  Ancient  Greece. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  What   was   Socrates'   error  in   his  statement   that  "to 
know  the  right  is  to  do  the  right"? 

2.  What  better  methods  are  used  in  education  today  than 
the  Socratic  quiz  for  the  development  of  concepts  or  "whole- 
thoughts"? 

3.  Compare  the  state  control  of  marriage  in  Plato's  "Re- 
public" with  that  suggested  by  modern  eugenists. 

4.  Compare  the  selective  process  to  determine  one's  life 
work    suggested  in  the  "Republic"  with  the  modern  principle 
of  vocational  guidance. 

5.  Does  the  view  of  women's  education  held  today  conform 
more  closely  to  the  view  of  Plato  or  Aristotle? 

6.  In    what   respect    did    Aristotle    advocate   the   modern 
principle  of  "learn  to  know  by  doing"? 

7.  In  what  respects  does  the  multiplication   of  religious 
sects  today  resemble  the   founding  of  philosophical  schools 
among  the  Greeks? 

8.  Compare  the  development  of  the  University  of  Athens 
with  that  of  an  American  university  like  Columbia. 

9.  How    did    the    rhetorical    schools    among    the    Greeks 
resemble  the  academies  of  our  country? 

49 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

10.  Compare  the  spread  of  the  use  of  the  Greek  language 
after  the  conquests  of  Alexander  with  the  use  of  French  in 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries. 

11.  Compare  the  work  of  the  Egyptian  King  Ptolemy  with 
that  of  Andrew  Carnegie  in  the  advancement  of  learning. 


CHAPTER  V 
ROMAN  EDUCATION 

Outline. — The  mission  of  the  Romans  was  to  organize  in- 
stitutions whereby  the  ideals  of  the  other  peoples  might  be 
realized.  The  Jew  furnished  Western  civilization  with  its 
religious  ideal;  the  Roman  organized  it  into  an  institution 
which  saved  Europe  from  barbarism.  The  Greek  furnished 
the  ideal  of  justice;  the  Roman  made  it  concrete  in  a  system 
of  law  upon  which  European  civilization  is  today  founded. 

Previous  to  contact  with  the  Greeks  the  Romans  gave  their 
boys  a  practical  and  civic  education.  This  was  done  infor- 
mally by  means  of  the  activities  of  the  family,  the  forum, 
and  the  camp.  After  assimilating  Greek  culture,  the  Romans 
organized  their  education  into:  (1)  elementary,  given  in  the 
school  of  the  litterator;  (2)  secondary,  given  in  the  school  of 
the  grammaticus;  and  (3)  higher,  given  in  the  school  of  the 
rhetor.  A  young  Roman  might  afterward  attend  a  university. 

Contributions  of  Rome  to  Western  Civilization. — The 
Romans  had  the  greatest  genius  for  organization  and 
administration  of  any  historic  people.  Intensely  prac- 
tical and  without  high  ideals,  their  mission  in  history 
was  to  organize  institutions  whereby  the  ideals  of  other 
peoples  might  be  realized.  If  from  the  Jew  we  have 
received  our  religious  ideal,  it  was  the  Roman  who  organ- 
ized it  into  an  institution  which  saved  Europe  from  bar- 
barism. If  the  Greek  furnished  the  ideal  of  justice,  the 
Roman  made  it  concrete  in  a  system  of  law  upon  which 
European  civilization  is  founded  today.  The  universal 

51 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

empire  organized  by  Rome  was  the  instrument  by  whicl 
Greek  art,  literature,  science,  and  philosophy  were 
spread  among  all  peoples. 

The  Roman  View  of  Life. — The  Roman 's  point  of  vie^ 
was  objective,  never  subjective.  He  was  impatient  ol 
abstraction  and  dealt  only  with  the  concrete.  He  meas 
ured  the  value  of  everything  by  the  utilitarian  stand 
ard  of  results.  Every  relation  of  life  was  to  be  organ 
ized  on  practical  principles.  Even  religion,  which  dis 
closes  man's  highest  aspiration,  was  with  the  Romar 
chiefly  a  bargaining  with  the  gods,  a  practical  device  foi 
everyday  living.  He  was  essentially  a  doer,  not  i 
thinker  nor  a  man  of  emotion.  He  represents  chieflj 
the  life  of  the  will  as  the  Greek  represents  chiefly  the  lift 
of  the  intellect  and  feelings.  He  lived  for  his  state  anc 
was  never  able  to  think  of  the  man  as  separate  from  the 
citizen.  He  solved  the  problem  of  the  reconciliation  oJ 
individual  liberty  with  social  security  by  emphasizing 
state  control.  But  the  surrender  of  the  individual  to  th( 
state  was  voluntary,  not  compulsory. 

Institutions  of  Rome  Which  Educated. — 1.  The  Fam 
ily. — The  very  basis  of  Roman  life  was  the  family.  Ir 
it  the  mother  occupied  as  honorable  a  position  as  the 
father  and  woman's  place  in  Roman  life  was  far  highei 
and  more  influential  than  among  the  Greeks.  Unlike 
the  Greek  male,  the  Roman  lived  much  at  home;  the 
hearth  was  his  most  sacred  spot.  All  members  of  the 
family  were  strongly  bound  together  and,  while  the 
Greek  tried  to  make  his  son  independent  as  soon  as  pos 
sible,  the  Roman's  control  of  the  members  of  his  family 
ceased  only  with  death.  The  influence  of  this  family 
life  upon  the  development  of  character  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. 

2.  The  Camp.— The  Roman  was  always  at  war  and 

52 


KOMAN  EDUCATION 

the  first  duty  of  a  father  was  to  prepare  his  son  to  take 
part  in  war.  This  was  not  an  academic  training  in  a 
gymnasium  as  with  the  Greeks.  The  Romans  never  had 
gymnasia.  The  father  taught  his  son  to  ride,  swim,  and 
use  the  spear;  and  when  the  boy  reached  the  age  of 
manhood  (sixteen),  he  learned  the  use  of  arms  in  the 
camp  itself.  When  not  engaged  on  the  farm  he  was  to 
be  found  in  the  camp. 

3.  The  Forum. — Thruout  the  republican  period  the 
forum  exercised  a  great  educative  influence  upon  the 
Roman  youth.     It  was  there  he  heard  the  ideals  and 
duties  of  the  citizen  set  forth.     Unlike  the  Athenian 
youth,  he  heard  no  discussions  on  abstract  questions  of 
life,  morals,  law,  or  politics,  but  the  concrete  problems 
before  the  state.    And  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  early 
period  all  free  Romans  participated  in 'this  life;  for 
until  the  great  conquests  glutted  the  market  with  slaves, 
manual  labor  in  agriculture  was  not  despised. 

4.  Religion. — With  the  Romans  religion  was  a  differ- 
ent thing  from  that  of  the  Greeks.    Their  gods  did  not 
have  human  attributes  and  wish  to  be  housed  in  beauti- 
ful temples  and  placated  thru  such  joyous  activities  as 
dancing  and  singing.     Religion  had  no  influence  upon 
the  esthetic  or  intellectual  life  of  the  people.    There  was 
a  god  for  every  human  activity,  mysterious,  stern,  and 
inexorable,  demanding  his  tribute  of  sacrifice.    But  these 
impersonal  deities,  at  least  until  they  were  identified 
with  the  gods  of  the  Greeks,  did  not  exemplify  human 
weaknesses  and  had  a  distinctly  ethical  influence.     The 
sense  of  duty,  not  beauty,  was  developed  by  the  Roman 
religion. 

Periods  of  Roman  Education. — The  social  and  educa- 
tional history  of  Rome  falls  into  two  periods.  Tho  no 
date  can  be  set  as  marking  the  division  of  the  two 

53 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

periods,  for  convenience  the  line  may  be  drawn  at  146 
B.C.,  when  Greece  was  conquered  and  made  a  Roman 
province.  In  the  earlier  period  Roman  life  was  as  de- 
scribed above  and  education  was  controlled  by  Roman 
ideals  and  methods.  Before  the  close  of  that  period,  as 
the  result  of  the  conquest  of  southern  Italy,  Roman  life 
had  become  influenced  by  contact  with  the  Greeks.  In 
the  second  period  Rome  took  over  Greek  culture  nearly 
in  toto,  and  the  content  and  form  of  education,  tho  not 
its  ideals,  were  Hellenized.  We  shall  now  consider  the 
education  of  the  first  period. 

A.     EAELY  ROMAN  EDUCATION 

The  aim  of  Roman  education  was  to  produce  a  loyal 
Roman  prepared  for  the  practical  duties  of  life.  It 
was  an  affair  entirely  of  the  family,  in  which  the  father 
trained  his  son  for  the  duties  of  the  man  and  citizen,  and 
the  mother  trained  the  daughter  for  the  duties  of  the 
woman  and  housekeeper.  As  in  all  systems  of  family 
education  the  emphasis  was  upon  the  moral  side  of  life, 
upon  the  development  of  character.  The  result  was  that 
the  Roman  was  distinguished  by  the  homelier  and  sterner 
virtues :  piety,  manliness,  courage,  gravity,  honesty,  pru- 
dence. Associated  with  this  moral  training  was  a  physi- 
cal training  to  produce  a  hardy  man  and  soldier.  But 
the  physical  exercises  of  the  Roman  boy  were  never 
organized  into  a  system  and  given  in  an  institution,  as 
with  the  Greeks;  and  to  have  aimed  at  beauty  of  form 
and  grace  of  action  would  have  been  considered  effemi- 
nate. The  intellectual  element  in  Roman  education  was 
small.  The  boy  was  taught  to  read,  write,  and  count 
by  his  father.  Biography  had  a  most  important  place, 
and  the  stories  of  the  lives  of  the  heroes  who  had  served 

54 


ROMAN  EDUCATION 

Rome  reinforced  the  work  of  the  home  in  developing 
the  Roman  character.  The  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables, 
the  fundamental  legal  code,  had  to  be  memorized  by 
every  Roman  boy;  but  the  influence  upon  him  was  not 
comparable  to  that  of  Homer  on  the  Greek  boy.  Except 
for  the  Twelve  Tables  no  literary  element,  and,  except 
for  the  national  songs  and  religious  hymns,  no  musical 
element  appeared  in  this  education.  Art,  science,  and 
philosophy  were  unknown ;  culture  for  its  own  sake  was 
scorned. 

The  method  of  Roman  education  was  direct  imitation — 
first  of  the  father,  then  of  the  hero.  The  Greek  believed 
in  placing  the  boy  in  an  environment  of  beauty,  refine- 
ment, and  culture  in  word,  deed,  and  object,  and  relied 
upon  the  assimilative  power  of  the  mind  to  assist  towards 
the  desired  end.  The  Roman  believed  that  the  only  way 
to  learn  any  activity  was  to  do  it  in  imitation  of  a  con- 
crete model  and  to  do  it  often  enough  to  form  a  habit. 
When  that  was  accomplished  the  end  was  attained.  To 
instruct  afterwards  in  the  rational  basis  of  habits  never 
occurred  to  them. 

The  Period  of  Transition. — Such  was  the  education  of 
the  Roman  boy  during  the  first  period.  But  long  before 
the  date  set  for  the  closing  of  that  period  a  change  had 
begun  to  take  place.  Quite  early  in  the  period  the  ludus, 
a  primary  school,  arose,  to  which  some  Romans  sent 
their  boys  to  learn'  reading,  writing,  and  counting.  In 
no  wise  was  the  emphasis  upon  family  training  lessened, 
for  it  was  only  these  formal  subjects  that  were  learned 
in  these  private  schools  and  not  the  habits  and  duties 
of  the  man  and  citizen.  But  this  education  sufficed  only 
so  long  as  Rome  remained  a  local  community.  When  it 
had  conquered  the  whole  of  Italy  and  come  in  contact 
with  alien  and  superior  civilizations,  a  broader  culture 

55 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

was  essential.  But  the  change  was  a  very  slow  one. 
Livius  Andronicus,  a  Greek  slave  from  southern  Italy, 
opened  one  of  the  first  schools  of  a  higher  grade  than 
the  Indus.  As  Latin  literature  had  hardly  begun,  he 
translated  the  Odyssey  into  Latin,  c.  250  B.C.,  and 
thereafter  that  was  the  textbook  in  reading  and  litera- 
ture for  the  Roman  boy.  Other  Greeks  followed  his 
example  and  opened  schools  in  which  a  knowledge  of 
Greek  literature  by  means  of  translations  and  an  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  the  Greek  language  were  im- 
parted. Gradually  these  translations — and  eventually 
Greek  literature  itself — supplanted  the  memorizing  of 
the  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  as  the  intellectual  element 
in  the  Roman  boy's  education.  But  these  schools  were 
all  private  undertakings  without  any  generally  accepted 
system  of  work,  and  they  were  attended  by  only  a  few 
of  the  youths  of  the  upper  classes. 

B.     THE  HELLENIZED  ROMAN  EDUCATION 

Absorption  of  Greek  Culture  by  the  Romans. — After 
the  conquest  of  Greece  by  the  Romans,  146  B.C.,  a  de- 
light in  things  Greek  spread  thruout  Roman  society. 
The  conquerors  had  robbed  Greece  of  many  of  her  treas- 
ures in  books  and  art  and  brought  them  to  Rome.  Greek 
teachers  of  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  even  philosophy  emi- 
grated in  large  numbers  to  the  metropolis  to  open 
schools.  In  all  history  there  is  no  instance  of  a  more 
complete  imitation  of  the  culture  of  one  people  by  an- 
other than  that  of  the  Greek  by  the  Romans.  They 
borrowed  Greek  religion,  philosophy,  art,  and  literature 
— at  least  in  form.  Naturally  they  borrowed  the  system 
of  education  upon  which  all  this  culture  was  based,  but 
in  doing  so  they  organized  it  into  a  system  superior  to 

56 


ROMAN  EDUCATION 

that  df  the  Greeks.  It  must  always  be  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  this  assimilation  was  a  slow  process,  due  to  the 
strong  conservatism  of  the  Roman  character  and  the 
active  opposition  of  many  influential  men.  Unlike  the 
rapid  conquest  made  by  the  Sophistic  education  in 
Athens  or  by  scientific  education  in  our  own  country, 
the  movement  required  a  century  to  complete  its  work. 
The  publication  of  Cicero's  book,  "De  Oratore,"  55 
B.C.,  marks  fairly  well  its  final  triumph.  The  system 
of  education  as  then  organized  remained  with  few  modi- 
fications until  the  close  of  the  empire. 

The  following  diagram  is  a  graphic  statement  of  the 
Roman  system  of  education : 

Period  of  Education  School  Age 

1.  Elementary  Litterator  7-10 

2.  Secondary  Grammaticus  to  16 

3.  Higher  Ehetor  16  on 
The  Elementary  School. — The  school  of  the  litterator, 

i.  e.,  teacher  of  letters,  was  the  old  ludus,  to  which  the 
Roman  boy  was  now  sent  to  acquire  the  elements  of 
learning,  usually  in  charge  of  a  pedagogue,  as  at  Athens. 
Like  all  Roman  schools  of  the  republican  and  early  im- 
perial periods,  it  was  a  private  institution  opened  in  a 
room  of  a  building  or  held  even  on  a  porch.  As  no 
qualifications  for  teaching  were  demanded,  it  was  usually 
presided  over  by  a  freedman  who  was  poorly  paid  and 
had  a  low  social  standing.  The  equipment  was  poor  and 
the  teaching  probably  of  the  same  quality.  Reading, 
writing,  and  counting  were  taught  by  the  same  methods 
as  in  the  Greek  schools;  and  as  soon  as  the  boy  could 
read  fairly  well  he  was  sent  to  a  grammar  school.  No 
Greeks  taught  these  primary  schools ;  and  many  Roman 
boys  never  went  to  them,  but  received  their  elementary 
training  from  a  tutor  at  home. 

57 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Grammar  School. — The  school  of  the  grammaticus 
was  so  called  because,  as  with  us,  grammar  was  the  chief 
subject  of  study.  But  grammar  had  a  much  wider  sig- 


A 


SCHOOL  MATERIALS  FROM  WALL  PAINTINGS 

— Wax   tablet   and  copra,   containing  rolls  or  books.     B — Wax 
tablet  with  stilus   tied  to  it 


PUNISHMENT 
From  a  painting  at  Herculaneum 

nificance  than  with  us.    It  included  the  study  of  litera- 
ture as  well  as  language,  and  these  schools  were  par  ex- 

58 


ROMAN  EDUCATION 

ceUence  literary  schools.  At  first  they  were  maintained 
wholly  by  Greeks,  who  devoted  themselves  almost  exclu- 
sively to  giving  instruction  in  the  Greek  language  and 
literature ;  but  about  100  B.C.  Lucius  JElius  Stilo  opened 
a  Latin  grammar  school,  and  from  that  time  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  the  Roman  boy  to  attend  both.  Reading, 
composition,  and  grammar  formed  the  curriculum: 
grammar  meant  the  study  of  the  form  and  content  of  all 
Greek  and  Latin  literature,  didactic  and  artistic ;  so  be- 
sides poetry  it  included  geography,  history,  some  mathe- 
matics and  natural  sciences,  music,  and  mythology.  As 
to  content,  probably  for  the  most  part  these  subjects 
were  superficially  studied.  Minute  attention  was  given 
to  the  form  of  Greek  and  Latin  writers  as  models  for 
correctness  of  expression  in  writing  and  speaking.  Quin- 
tilian  considered  the  power  of  imitation  and  memory 
as  the  most  critical  evidences  of  ability  in  a  prospective 
orator.  Homer  always  remained  the  chief  author  to  be 
studied  in  the  Greek  grammar  school,  and  in  the  im- 
perial period  Virgil  was  the  chief  author  to  be  studied 
in  the  Latin  grammar  school ;  but  selections  from  a  wide 
range  of  authors  were  used  in  both  schools.  Two  sub- 
jects were  not  introduced  from  the  Greek  schools,  viz., 
dancing  and  gymnastics. 

The  method  of  teaching  was  by  explanation  and  dic- 
tation, the  method  of  study  was  chiefly  the  memoriter. 
The  aim  was  to  give  a  mastery  of  expression  in  reading, 
writing,  and  speaking  to  prepare  the  boy  for  the  work  of 
the  rhetorical  schools.  These  grammar  schools  were  well- 
equipped  institutions  like  those  of  Greece,  and  the  teach- 
ers received  good  incomes  and  had  a  good  social  stand- 
ing. The  discipline  of  all  the  Roman  schools  was  severe, 
the  rod  being  used  freely.  The  school  day  was  long, 
from  early  morning  until  late  afternoon.  But,  in  Italy 

59 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

at  least,  there  was  a  summer  vacation  from  about  June 
first  until  October  first.  Moreover,  the  Saturnalia  cor- 
responded to  our  Christmas  vacation,  the  feast  of  Min- 
erva to  our  Easter  vacation,  and  there  were  no  school 
sessions  on  many  festival  days. 

The  Rhetorical  School. — When  he  completed  the  gram- 
mar school,  at  about  the  age  of  assuming  the  toga  virilis 
(the  dress  of  a  man),  the  education  of  the  Roman  boy 
ended,  unless  he  was  destined  for  a  public  career.  If 
that  was  so,  he  entered  the  school  of  the  rhetor  and 
remained  there  for  a  period  depending  upon  his  ability 
and  interests,  probably  in  most  cases  about  three  years. 
The  rhetorical  schools  were  much  more  slowly  established 
than  the  grammar  schools  and  became  numerous  only 
about  the  beginning  of  the  imperial  period.  At  first 
there  were  only  Greek  rhetorical  schools;  but  during 
the  first  century  B.C.  Latin  rhetorical  schools  were 
established,  and  in  course  of  time  superseded  the  Greek 
in  importance,  appealing  as  they  did  to  a  much  wider 
constituency.  In  the  late  republican  and  early  imperial 
periods  it  became  customary  among  the  higher  classes 
to  send  youths  to  Greece  for  their  rhetorical  training. 

Aim,  Content,  and  Method  of  Work. — The  aim  of  the 
rhetorical  school  was  to  prepare  the  individual  for  the 
life  of  public  affairs.  During  the  republican  and  early 
imperial  periods,  before  freedom  disappeared,  this  train- 
ing for  service  to  society  was  vigorous  and  effective. 
With  the  Roman  the  orator  was  the  well-educated  man. 
Therefore,  tho  the  work  of  the  rhetorical  school  was 
chiefly  devoted  to  the  arts  of  speech — rhetoric,  declama- 
tion, and  debate — yet,  if  we  are  to  believe  Quintilian, 
literary  criticism,  dialectic,  music,  geometry,  astronomy, 
politics,  and  ethics  were  carefully  taught.  The  method 
of  work  was  first  learning  to  declaim  model  selections; 

60 


ROMAN  EDUCATION 

then  participating  in  debate ;  and  then,  after  attendance 
upon  lectures,  writing  orations  according  to  certain 
types.  Many  of  the  subjects  taken  for  declamation,  de- 
bate, and  oration  were  on  subtle  points  of  Eoman  law 
which  developed  ability  in  making  fine  distinctions.  But 
in  the  imperial  period  they  were  usually  set  in  highly 
imaginary  conditions,  taken  from  mythology  or  history, 
and  very  remote  from  the  actual  life  of  the  day. 

Higher  Education. — At  first  a  Roman  desirous  of  a 
more  liberal  education  went  to  one  of  the  Greek  uni- 
versities, and  that  practice  never  entirely  died  out.  But 
libraries  grew  rapidly  in  Rome  in  the  Augustan  era ;  and 
when  Vespasian  about  A.D.  75  established  a  great 
library  in  the  Temple  of  Peace,  the  foundation  of  a 
university  was  laid.  The  history  of  the  University  of 
Alexandria  was  repeated.  Professorships  in  the  liberal 
arts  were  established  in  connection  with  the  library  by 
successive  emperors  and  finally  Hadrian,  about  125 
A.D.,  organized  it  into  the  Atheneum.  Schools  of  law, 
medicine,  architecture,  and  mechanics  were  developed 
gradually — the  old  method  of  study  in  those  subjects 
by  apprenticeship  to  an  eminent  practitioner  being  su- 
perseded, as  with  us,  by  formal  work  in  the  schools.  Lit- 
tle work  was  done  in  philosophical  speculation  or  in 
scientific  research,  both  of  which  were  foreign  to  the 
Roman  temperament.  This,  moreover,  was  the  only 
Roman  university,  for  Marseilles,  where  was  situated 
the  only  other  university  in  the  West,  remained  to  the 
end  a  Greek  city. 

Public  Support  of  Schools. — It  must  be  remembered 
that  these  various  classes  of  schools  grew  up  wholly 
under  private  auspices  without  either  government  super- 
vision or  government  support.  So  extensively  did  these 
schools  spread  that  by  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  there 

61 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

was  practically  no  provincial  town  without  its  grammar 
school  nor  provincial  capital  without  its  rhetorical  school. 
Vespasian  inaugurated  the  practice  of  paying  the  sal- 
aries of  selected  teachers  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  and 
his  successors  extended  it.  Finally  Antoninus  Pius,  c. 
150,  awarded  to  some  teachers  of  grammar,  rhetoric,  and 
philosophy  many  of  the  privileges  of  the  senatorial  class, 
especially  exemptions  from  taxation  and  military  serv- 
ice. These  became  the  foundation  of  the  privileges  of  the 
clergy,  when  the  empire  became  Christian  under  Con- 
stantine,  c.  A.D.  326.  In  376  Gratian  established  a  fixed 
schedule  of  salaries  for  teachers  thruout  the  empire. 
In  361  Julian  had  asserted  the  right  of  the  em- 
peror to  pass  upon  all  appointments  made  by  the  munic- 
ipal governments.  In  425  the  establishment  of  schools 
was  made  an  exclusive  privilege  of  the  state.  But  just 
when  the  imperial  government  might  have  developed  a 
national  system  of  education,  the  invasions  of  the  bar- 
barians put  an  end  to  the  schools  and  the  empire  as  well. 
Decay  of  Roman  Society. — The  overthrow  of  the  em- 
pire was  not  a  difficult  undertaking,  for  the  government 
had  become  a  mere  shell.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century  it  was  a  pure  despotism.  All  pretense  of 
maintaining  the  old  practices  of  the  republic  was  given 
up.  Oriental  forms  of  servility,  including  prostration 
before  the  emperor,  became  prevalent.  The  imperial 
court  was  large,  luxurious,  immoral,  and  servile.  All 
power  was  centered  in  the  emperor  and  in  the  bureau- 
cracy, which  had  become  exceedingly  numerous  and 
costly.  The  senatorial  class,  entrance  to  which  was 
obtained  by  favoritism  or  bribery,  had  immense  privi- 
leges and  few  corresponding  obligations.  There  was  no 
outlet  for  the  abilities  of  senators  in  the  state,  and  they 
shunned  the  army  filled  with  barbarians.  They  led  a 

62 


ROMAN  EDUCATION 

life  of  luxurious  ease — at  best  one  of  cultured  leisure, 
at  worst  one  of  debauchery — wholly  without  interest 
either  in  the  affairs  of  the  state  or  of  their  wretched 
fellow  men  about  them.  The  other  free  citizens,  the  curi- 
ales,  had  to  bear  the  burdens  of  the  army  and  the  gov- 
ernment. As  the  result  of  plague,  infanticide,  and"  im- 
morality, there  was  a  constantly  diminishing  popula- 
tion and  a  corresponding  decrease  in  ability  to  support 
the  defenses  against  the  barbarians.  The  Roman  Em- 
pire fell  because  of  lack  of  men  and  money.  The  slave 
class,  enormously  increased  by  the  successive  wars,  was 
still  further  augmented  from  the  ranks  of  the  freemen, 
many  of  whom  voluntarily  entered  slavery  to  escape 
the  obligations  of  Roman  citizenship. 

Decline  of  Education. — As  stated  before,  whenever 
there  is  a  change  in  social  ideals  and  social  life,  there 
is  sure  to  be  a  corresponding  change  in  education.  In 
this  period  of  decline  education  became  more  and  more  a 
privilege  of  the  senatorial  class.  It  no  longer  aimed  to 
prepare  for  the  practical  duties  of  a  man  of  affairs,  and 
became  more  and  more  a  culture  education  to  enable  a 
man  to  shine  in  society.  A  desire  for  perfection  of  form, 
without  reference  to  the  real  meaning  and  content  of 
things,  animated  the  school.  With  such  a  view  of  life 
and  such  an  aim  of  education  the  period  was  naturally 
one  of  sterility.  After  Marcus  Aurelius,  d.  A.D.  180, 
no  writer,  artist,  or  philosopher  of  the  first  rank  ap- 
peared, and  but  a  negligible  number  of  second  rank. 
No  pagan  authors  of  this  period  had  any  influence  on 
later  times,  save  a  few  writers  on  technical  subjects,  like 
the  grammarians  Donatus,  c.  A.D.  400,  and  Priscian,  c. 
A.D.  500,  whose  grammars  were  used  during  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  Hence  the  schools  of  grammar  devoted  them- 
selves to  a  study  of  the  old  classics,  especially  Virgil 

63 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

and  Horace;  no  longer,  however,  for  inspiration  and  lit- 
erary appreciation,  but  solely  for  style,  diction,  and  apt 
quotation.  Similarly,  as  oratory  was  no  longer  to  be 
used  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life,  content  was  of  no 
importance  and  form  became  everything.  Hence  to  ac- 
quire a  big  vocabulary,  a  florid  style,  a  bombastic  speech 
was  the  aim  of  students  in  the  schools  "o~f  rhetoric.  As 
orations  were  no  longer  delivered  in  the  senate  or  forum, 
the  orator  or  rhetorician  took  refuge  in  the  home  or 
theater,  where  he  gave  exhibitions  to  which  the  cultured 
flocked  as  they  attend  musicales  today.  Philosophy  was 
no  longer  taught  in  any  of  the  schools  of  the  West,  and 
law  in  but  few  of  them.  The  schools  of  grammar  and 
rhetoric  flourished  to  the  end.  Their  teachers  remained 
honored  and  well  paid,  but  their  debased  culture  without 
the  liberalizing  virtues  of  the  Greek  education  or  the 
practical  virtues  of  the  Roman  did  not  have  any  influ- 
ence in  a  period  of  stress  and  storm. 

Roman  Writers  on  Education. — As  we  have  seen,  the 
Roman,  unlike  the  Greek,  did  not  speculate  on  the  aim 
of  life  or  the  meaning  of  education.  To  him  education 
meant  merely  a  practical  preparation  for  practical  life ; 
hence,  as  we  should  expect,  any  treatise  on  education  by 
a  Roman  is  largely  an  exposition  of  current  practice. 
Our  information  concerning  Roman  education  is  ob- 
tained chiefly  from  Cicero's  "De  Oratore,"  Tacitus'  "De 
Oratoribus,"  Suetonius'  "De  Grammaticis"  and  "De 
Rhetoricis,"  and  particularly  Quintilian's  "De  Institu- 
tione  Oratoria"  ("Institutes  of  Oratory").  Of  these, 
however,  only  QuintiJian  gives  an  exposition  of  the  en- 
tire field  of  education.  Such  problems  j^s  the  relative 
advantages  of  tutorial  and  school  training,  discipline, 
interest,  memory  training,  adapta]^n,jto^J^mperament, 
and~qualifications  of  the  teacher  are  considered  in  the 

64 


twelve   boob 


ROMAN  EDUCATION 


relve  books  of  his  great  work.  But  it  is  chiefly 
devoted  to  a  consideration  of  literary  values  and 
methods  of  teaching  subjects,  from  the  alphabet  to 
oratory,  his  suggestions  in  method  conforming  in 
many  instances  to  the  most  approved  of  the  present 
day.  Tho  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  for  twenty  years 
he  was  Rome's  most  distinguished  teacher  of  rhet- 
oric, and  he  wrote  his  treatise  only  after  he  had  retired 
from  active  service,  A.D.  96.  He  was  highly  esteemed 
by  his  contemporaries  and  was  the  first  teacher  of  rhet- 
oric to  be  subsidized  by  Vespasian.  His  treatise  had 
a  great  influence  upon  the  schools  until  the  fall  of  the 
empire,  and  it  was  of  much  service  to  the  humanists  after 
its  discovery  in  the  early  Renaissance. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Roman  Education, 
Andronicus,  Quintilian,  etc. 

CLARKE,  GEO.     Education  of  Children  at  Rome. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
X. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  I.  Chap. 
XIII. 

LAURIE,  S.  S.     Pre-Christian  Education.     The  Romans. 

MAHAFFY,  J.  P.    Greek  World  under  Roman  Sway. 

MONROE,  PAUL.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  IV. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  What  reasons  are  there  why  biography  plays  so   dif- 
ferent  a  part  in   the  education  of  the  Roman  and  of  the 
American  boy? 

2.  In  what  period  of  our  national  life  did  the  education 

65 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  the  American  boy  resemble  that  of  the  early  Romans? 
What  influences  have  brought  about  the  change? 

3.  In  what  period  of  our  national  life  did  public  speech 
play  as  important  a  part  as  with  the  Romans  of  the  repub- 
lican period?     Why  does  it  not  play   so  important  a  part 
today? 

4.  The  Roman  began  the  study  of  Greek  in  early  child- 
hood.   In  the  American  public  school  the  pupil  begins  foreign 
languages  in  the  high  schools.     Which  practice  is  based  upon 
sound  principles  of  education? 

5.  The  Roman  emphasized  secondary  education;   we  em- 
phasize elementary  education.     Why? 

6.  In  the  aim  and  organization  of  education  does  our  sys- 
tem resemble  the  Greek  or  the  Roman? 

7.  Compare  the   " Wander jahr"   of  the   Germans  with  the 
Roman  practice  of  sending  boys  abroad  to  Greek  schools. 

8.  Compare  the  imitation  of  Greek  culture  by  the  Romans 
with  that  of  Western  culture  by  the  Japanese  in  aim,  content, 
and  method. 

9.  The  average  Roman  completed  his  work  in  the  rhetorical 
school  at  about  nineteen  or  twenty  years  of  age.     Why  do 
American  students  require  two  or  three  years  more? 

10.  Compare  the  curriculum  of  a  rhetorical  school  as  out- 
lined by  Quintilian  with  that  of  an  American  college. 

11.  Is  there  any  evidence  that  the  practice  of  the  Roman 
emperors  in  subsidizing  rhetoricians  was  for  the  purpose  of 
controlling  their  freedom  of  speech? 

12.  The  statement  is  often   made  that  America  needs  a 
"leisure"    class.      The    senatorial    class    formed    the    Roman 
leisure  class.     Do  social   conditions  today  justify  the  belief 
that  such  a  class  would  take  a  different  attitude  towards  social 
living? 

13.  Compare  the  attitude  towards  foreigners  of  the  Roman 
of  the  imperial  period  with  that  of  Americans  today. 

14.  Which    of   the   great   culture   nations   of   today   have 
not  based  their  jurisprudence  upon  Roman  law?     Why? 


CHAPTER  VI 
EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 


Outline. — Christianity  sought  the  moral  regeneration  of  the 
individual  and  thereby  of  society,  hence  at  first  it  gave  its 
adherents  a  wholly  moral  and  religious  education  in  the 
catechumenal  school. 

Later,  when  it  spread  among  the  upper  classes,  it  gave  a 
higher  education  in  the  catechetical  schools,  which  became 
seminaries  for  the  training  of  priests.  Attached  to  the  bishop's 
church  there  also  developed  cathedral  schools,  which  became 
one  of  the  chief  instruments  of  the  Church  in  which  to  train 
leaders  of  the  faithful. 

How  the  Way  Was  Prepared  for  the  Spread  of  Chris- 
tianity.— After  the  establishment  of  the  empire,  Rome 
imposed  upon  the  civilized  world  the  pax  Romana,  the 
Roman  peace.  This  permitted  missionary  work  upon 
the  part  of  the  early  Christians  which  would  otherwise 
have  been  impossible.  The  necessity  of  governing  all 
the  different  nations  and  peoples  resulted  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Jus  Gentium  (Law  of  Nations),  which 
consisted  of  those  principles  of  law  common  to  all  na- 
tions. This  prepared  the  minds  of  men  for  the  idea  of 
a  moral  law  common  to  all  men  and  binding  upon  all, 
bond  or  free,  rich  or  poor,  learned  or  ignorant.  The 
filling  of  the  Roman  armies  with  men  of  all  nations, 
the  gradual  extension  of  Roman  citizenship  to  men  of 
all  nations,  the  knowledge  that  they  were  controlled  by 
a  common  law  resulted  in  the  gradual  development  in 

67 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  minds  of  the  best,  especially  among  the  Stoic  phi- 
losophers, of  the  idea  of  a  genus  humanum,  a  human 
kind,  i.  e.,  that  despite  racial  differences  man  is  essen- 
tially the  same.  This  prepared  the  way  for  the  Christian 
teaching  that  all  men  are  the  children  of  one  Father, 
hence  are  brethren,  and  that  among  His  children.  He 
makes  no  allowance  for  distinctions  of  birth,  wealth,  or 
learning.  Moreover,  Christianity  appeared  at  a  time 
when  the  world  was  weary  of  itself,  when  men  were  con- 
vinced of  sin,  when  there  was  a  vain  striving  to  dis- 
cover a  moral  support  not  afforded  by  the  pagan  relig- 
ions or  even  the  pagan  philosophies.  A  great  vitalizing 
force  was  needed  not  only  in  the  West,  but  even  more 
in  the  East,  where  life  and  education  as  typified  by 
Israel  had  become  incrusted  with  a  narrow  and  dogmatic 
formalism.  This  vitalizing  force  appeared  in  the  person 
of  Jesus  Christ,  a  product  of  the  Jewish  family  life, 
of  the  synagogue,  and  of  the  rabbinical  school.  But 
the  founder  of  Christianity  reacted  forcibly  against 
institutional  suppression  of  the  individual. 

The  Christian  View  of  the  Relation  of  the  Individual 
to  Society. — The  Greco-Romans  never  distinguished  be- 
tween the  man  and  the  citizen.  The  only  virtues  they 
valued  were  civic,  were  in  some  form  of  service  to  the 
state.  The  idea  of  personality,  of  a  human  soul  valuable 
in  itself  and  worthy  of  development  for  itself,  with  such 
attendant  individual  virtues  as  charity,  sympathy,  or 
self-sacrifice  for  one's  fellow  men,  found  little  place  in 
their  thought.  The  very  appeal  that  Christianity  made 
to  what  was  common  in  all  men  implied  that  national 
lines  of  cleavage  were  artificial.  The  denial  of  the  exist- 
ence of  national  gods  would  inevitably  bring  Christian- 
ity into  conflict  with  the  state.  The  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  a  future  state  and  the  belief  that  earthly  exist- 

68 


- 


ARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

ence  was  but  a  preparation  for  it,  the  belief  in  the  early 
return  of  the  Master  and  the  passing  away  of  the  world 
suggested  the  contemning  of  earthly  interests  and  pleas- 
ures in  consideration  of  a  state  of  eternal  salvation. 
Hence  the  ' '  otherworldly ' '  ideal  of  the  early  Christians ; 
hence  their  adherence  to  the  institution  which  embodied 
it  after  their  religion  became  organized,  viz.,  the  Church ; 
hence  the  withdrawal  of  many  of  the  best  from  the  con- 
sideration of  mundane  affairs.  This  was  the  very  re- 
verse of  the  pagan  viewpoint.  The  pagan  lived  for  this 
world,  found  his  happiness  in  it,  and  expected  to  live 
in  no  other.  The  problem  of  the  reconciliation  of  indi- 
vidual freedom  with  social  stability  did  not  assume  a 
great  importance  to  one  whose  gaze  was  fixed  upon  an- 
other sphere  and  another  life. 

Christianity  a  Moral  Discipline. — Christianity  sought 
the  moral  regeneration  of  the  individual  and  thereby  of 
society.  Personal  purity  was  the  first  essential  for  en- 
trance to  the  fold.  To  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  of  the  early  Church,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  the 
debased  condition  of  Roman  society.  Infanticide  and 
child  exposure,  practiced  by  all  classes,  were  to  the  Chris- 
tian simple  murder.  The  ease  of  vice,  the  immoral  pub- 
lic ceremonials  under  the  guise  of  religion,  the  bloody 
gladiatorial  displays  were  dreadful  abominations.  Even 
before  the  tremendous  task  of  overcoming  these  evils 
had  been  accomplished,  another  great  work  confronted 
the  Church,  viz.,  the  conversion  of  the  barbarians  in 
order  to  save  the  faith  and  civilization  itself.  It  may 
well  be  asked,  ''How  much  energy  remained  to  be  de- 
voted to  education  and  culture  ?"  Moreover,  to  the 
Christian  there  was  no  reason  for  saving  the  pagan 
culture.  Its  literature  was  full  of  impurities,  its  art 
associated  with  its  immoral  religion,  its  philosophy  de- 

69 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

voted  to  destroying  the  faith.  As  the  school  was  the 
stronghold  of  the  pagan  culture,  it  gradually  became  re- 
garded as  the  enemy  of  the  Church  and  its  work  anath- 
ema to  the  true  believer.  Hence  the  development  of  an 
education  in  which  what  the  pagan  approved — viz.,  bod- 
ily training,  literature,  art,  science  and  philosophy- 
were  omitted,  and  what  the  pagan  neglected,  moral  train- 
ing and  religious  instruction,  were  emphasized. 

The  Catedmmenal  School. — But  this  point  of  view  did 
not  prevail  at  once. 

The  teaching  that  this  life  is  but  a  preparation  for 
another  and  eternal  life  in  which  rewards  and  punish- 
ments will  be  meted  out  according  to  conduct  on  earth, 
brought  hope  and  inspiration  to  the  millions  of  slaves 
and  unfortunates  who  were  neglected  and  subjected  un- 
der the  pagan  civilization.  It  was  among  these  that 
Christianity  won  its  adherents  during  the  first  centuries. 
They  had  no  education,  did  not  feel  the  need  of  it,  and 
in  fact  regarded  with  unfavorable  eyes  what  chiefly 
distinguished  their  masters  and  persecutors  from  them- 
selves— the  pagan  culture.  But  some  instruction  was 
necessary  for  entrance  to  Church  membership  for  the 
converts  from  Judaism  and  paganism,  as  well  as  for 
the  children  of  believers.  Hence  at  stated  intervals 
during  the  week  these  met  in  some  part  of  the  church 
for  religious  instruction,  moral  training,  and  the  learn- 
ing of  psalmody.  The  teachers  were  at  first  the  ablest 
members  of  the  local  church,  and  the  office  became  a  cleri- 
cal one  only  after  considerable  time  had  elapsed.  At 
first  the  period  of  instruction  necessary  for  baptism  was 
two  years,  but  as  the  children  of  believers  became  numer- 
ous it  was  extended  to  four.  These  catechumenal  schools 
became  universal  among  the  Christians,  and  lasted  long 
after  Christianity  had  vanquished  paganism. 

70 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

The  Catechetical  School. — For  more  than  two  centuries 
the  catechumenal  schools  supplied  most  of  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  the  Christians.    During  that  time,  how- 
ever, Christianity  had  begun  to  spread  among  the  seri- 
ous-minded of  the  well-to-do  pagans,  who  wished  a  higher 
education  for  their  sons.    The  latter  had  been  sent  to  the 
pagan  grammar  and  even  the  pagan  rhetorical  schools, 
their  parents  relying  upon  rigid  home  training  to  over- 
come any  evil  that  might  result  from  the  association  with 
pagan  influences.     But  towards  the  end  of  the  second 
century    and    thereafter    Christianity    made    converts 
among   the   teaching   class,    among   grammarians,    rhe- 
toricians, and  even  philosophers.     These  men  naturally 
brought  with  them  their  learning  and   their  love   of 
learning.     Moreover,  as  long  as  Christianity  remained 
the  religion  of  the  poor  and  ignorant,  it  was  treated 
by  the  learned  merely  with  contempt.    When  it  began, 
however,  to  make  headway  in  their  own  ranks  its  doc- 
trines as  well  as  its  practices  began  to  be  attacked.    To 
defend  these  doctrines  an  education  different  from  that 
of  the  catechumenal  schools  was  necessary.    Hence  some 
of  the  converted  teachers  opened  schools  for  the  Chris- 
tian youth.    At  first  these  were  wholly  private  and  un- 
connected with  the  Church.     But  in  179  Pantaenus,  a 
converted  Stoic  philosopher,  became  head  of  the  school 
for  catechumens  at  Alexandria.     He  was  one  of  the 
"Apologists,"  as  those  who  attempted  to  reconcile  Chris- 
tianity with  Greek  philosophy  were  called.    Under  him, 
and  particularly  under  his  eminent  successors,  Clement 
(c.  160-215)  and  Origen  (c.  185-254),  this  school,  which 
was  called  catechetical,  meaning  "to  teach  orally,"  i.  e., 
to  lecture,  developed  into  an  institution  where  the  entire 
round  of  the  Greco-Roman  learning  was  taught.    Gram- 
mar, literature,  rhetoric,  and  philosophy  were  studied  as 

71 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

thoroly  as  in  the  pagan  schools,  tho  always  as  the  hand- 
maidens of  the  Scriptures ;  and  the  students  took  advan- 
tage of  the  opportunities  for  study  offered  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  Alexandria.  At  first  scholars  from  all  classes 
were  admitted  to  the  schools;  but  gradually  they  devel- 
oped into  a  kind  of  seminary  for  the  training  of  the 
clergy.  Similar  institutions,  tho  not  so  celebrated,  were 
established  at  Caesarea,  Antioch,  Edessa,  and  Nisibis. 

The  Church  Fathers. — By  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century  the  era  of  persecution  was  closed.  Christianity 
was  legally  tolerated  A.D.  313,  and  soon  afterwards 
became  the  state  religion.  The  Church  had  conquered 
the  world,  but  in  the  conquest  its  adherents  had  lost 
much  of  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians. It  now  paid  to  be  a  Christian,  and  numerous 
adherents  of  the  faith  were  but  nominally  so.  During 
the  first  three  centuries  the  attitude  of  the  Greek 
Church  Fathers  had  been  uniformly  friendly  to  the 
study  of  the  pagan  culture.  Clement  and  Origen  were 
enthusiastic  in  its  advocacy,  maintaining  that  the  pagan 
culture  contributed  to  an  understanding  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  that  it  was  justifiable  and  wise  "to  spoil  the 
Egyptians/'  Even  when  this  enthusiasm  waned  and 
a  more  critical  attitude  was  adopted  towards  the  pagan 
learning,  such  eminent  Fathers  as  Basil  (331-379)  and 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus  (c.  325-390)  protested  against  its 
exclusion  from  the  Christian  schools.  The  attitude  of 
the  Latin  Church  Fathers  had  always  been  more  un- 
friendly. It  was  the  moral  grandeur  of  Christianity  that 
especially  appealed  to  the  Romans,  and  the  Latin 
Fathers  felt  that  the  great  mission  of  the  Church  was 
ethical.  Moreover,  the  application  of  Greek  philosophy 
to  Christian  doctrine  had  resulted  in  numerous  heresies 
in  the  East.  The  native  conservatism  of  the  Roman 

72 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

would  incline  him  to  the  traditional  element  in  the  faith, 
and  his  practical  insight  would  suggest  most  forcibly 
the  danger  to  morals  in  the  study  of  the  classical  litera- 
ture. Hence,  despite  the  fact  that  they  had  all  been 
teachers  and  were  steeped  in  the  pagan  culture,  Ter- 
tullian  (c.  150-230),  Jerome  (331-423),  and  Augustine 
(354-430)  eventually  discountenanced  such  study 
among  the  faithful.  It  was  probably  due  to  Augus- 
tine's influence  that  the  Council  of  Carthage  (401)  for- 
bade the  clergy  to  read  any  of  the  pagan  literature. 
The  Church  thereby  broke  with  humanism.  This  de- 
cree was  contemporaneous  with  the  invasion  of  the 
barbarians  and  the  rapid  disappearance  of  the  pagan 
schools. 

Cathedral  Schools. — Christianity  spread  primarily  in 
the  cities;  when  the  Church  had  grown  in  numbers  and 
strength  and  was  organized  into  dioceses,  the  chief  cities 
became  the  sees  or  seats  of  bishops  and  also  the  sites  of 
the  cathedral  churches.  Schools  similar  to  the  catecheti- 
cal schools  gradually  became  a  necessity  in  each  diocese 
to  supply  clergy,  and  promotions  in  the  clerical  ranks 
became  dependent  upon  attendance  in  these  schools. 
Naturally  these  schools  fell  under  the  supervision  of  the 
bishops  and  were  called  at  first  bishops'  schools  or  epis- 
copal schools;  but  gradually  in  the  West  this  name 
was  superseded  by  the  title  cathedral  schools,  from 
their  association  with  the  cathedral  church.  After  the 
disappearance  of  the  pagan  schools,  the  cathedral  schools 
and  the  monastic  schools  divided  between  them  the  field 
of  education  during  the  entire  medieval  period.  As  their 
work  was  similar,  a  knowledge  of  the  work  of  the  cathe- 
dral schools  can  be  obtained  by  the  study  of  the  monastic 
schools,  to  which  we  shall  now  turn. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  individual  Chris- 
tian Fathers,  Church,  Catechumenal,  Catechetical,  Cathedral, 
and  Bishops'  Schools,  Benedictines. 

Catholic  Encyclopedia.     Similar  articles. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  I,  Chap. 
XIV. 

MONROE,  PAUL.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  V,  Sec.  I. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Edu- 
cation. Chap.  II. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Is  Christianity  as  successful  today  in  its  appeal  to  the 
proletariat  as  it  was  in  the  first  century? 

2.  What  caused  the  emphasis  upon  the  practice   of  the 
Christian  virtues  which  characterized  the  faithful  in  the  first 
and  second  centuries  to  give  way  to  the  emphasis  upon  belief 
which  characterized  them  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries? 

3.  What  would  be  the  natural  effect  upon  education  of 
the  difference  between  the  pagan  and  the  Christian  attitude 
towards  death? 

4.  Why    did    the    incursion    of    the    German    barbarians 
strengthen  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  pagan 
culture  and  education? 

5.  Compare  the  work  undertaken  in  the  catechetical  school 
with  that  of  the  Sunday  school  today. 

6.  Why  would  the  ideals  of  Christianity  more  naturally 
lead  to  the  establishment  of  hospitals,  foundling  and  orphan 
asylums,    and    similar   philanthropic    institutions   than    those 
of  paganism? 

7.  Compare  the  appeal  made  to  the  poorer  classes  of  the 
Roman  world  by  Christianity  with  that  made  to  them  today 
by  Socialism. 

8.  Compare  the  fleeing  of  the  Christians  from  the  world 
before  Constantino's  conversion  and  after  it. 

74 


PART  II 
EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Characteristics:  The  submergence  of  the  individual 
in  institutions.  The  "otherworldly"  aim  of  life,  hence 
education  essentially  religious  and  under  the  control  of 
the  Church. 


CHAPTER  VII 
EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Outline. — Monasticism  developed  as  a  protest  against  the 
prevailing  worldliness,  and  was  organized  in  the  West  by  St. 
Benedict  A.D.  529.  He  prescribed  two  hours  a  day  of^reading 
for  the  monks;  to  enable  the  novices  to  secure  wESn  the 
monastic  school  was  established,  in  which  the  curriculum  de- 
veloped into  the  seven  liberal  arts. 

Because  of  the  troubled  conditions  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
centuries  learning  greatly  decayed.  Charlemagne  did  much 
to  restore  it  by  establishing  the  Palace  School,  with  Aleuin 
as  headmaster,  and  by  improving  the  monastic  and  cathedral 
schools. 

In  addition  to  the  clergy,  the  other  important  class  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  the  knights,  who  received  an  education  in 
"the  rudiments  of  love,  of  war,  and  of  religion."  The  future 
knight  was  apprenticed  to  a  lady  as  a  page  from  seven  to 
fourteen,  and  to  a  lord  as  a  squire  from  fourteen  to  twenty- 
one,  when  he  might  be  knighted. 

The  Saracens  in  the  East  absorbed  Greek  learning  and 
brought  it  with  them  to  Spain.  There  they  developed  a 
splendid  culture  in  literature,  art,  science,  and  philosophy. 
Christians  were  admitted  to  their  schools  and  brought  back 
to  Christian  Europe  much  of  the  Saracen  learning.  Avicenna 
in  medicine  and  Averroes  in  philosophy  were  studied  in  the 
medieval  universities. 

A  number  of  causes  combined  to  produce  an  educational 
revival  in  the  twelfth  century,  which  had  scholasticism  as  its 
chief  intellectual  product.  \This  was  a  method  of  philoso- 
phizing which  aimed  to  reconcile  faith  aad  reason.  It  re- 

77 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

suited  in  the  organization  of  the  limited  knowledge  of  the 
times  into  complete  systems  on  the  basis  of  Aristotelian  de- 
duction. 

The  medieval  university  arose  as  a  specialized  school  of 
some  one  of  the  great  professional  studies — determined  in 
each  case  by  local  conditions.  The  students,  who  came  from 
many  different  countries,  were  divided  into  nations;  the  teach- 
ers were  divided  into  the  four  faculties  of  arts,  law,  medicine, 
and  theology.  The  nations  and  faculties  elected  representa- 
tives to  the  university  council,  which  was  the  governing  body, 
and  which  elected  its  executive  officer,  the  rector. 

The  content  of  study  in  all  the  faculties  was  taken  from 
textbooks  which  were  read  and  explained  by  the  masters.  In 
addition  the  students  received  a  training  in  debate  by  means 
of  disputations.  The  courses  were  narrow,  but  the  methods 
developed  acute  reasoners. 


A.     MONASTIC  EDUCATION 

Nature  and  Growth  of  Monasticism. — As  has  already 
been  stated,  during  the  first  two  centuries  the  Chris- 
tians remained  a  distinct  community  within  society,  par- 
ticipating but  little  in  its  political  and  social  activities. 
But  as  Christianity  grew  in  strength  and  numbers  its 
adherents  entered  into  the  secular  life  of  the  time  and 
were  distinguished  from  the  pagans  by  their  religious 
beliefs  rather  than  by  their  attitude  towards  life.  Hence 
many  who  believed  that  the  spiritual  perfection  neces- 
sary to  eternal  salvation  was  only  to  be  secured  by  re^ 
maining  distinct  from  worldly  pleasures  and  activities 
fled  society  and  took  refuge  in  the  wilderness  of  the 
desert  or  the  forest,  where  they  found  fugitives  from 
the  persecutions.  World-renunciation  is  the  first  essen- 
tial element  in  monasticism.  The  method  of  securing 
spiritual  perfection  thru  bodily  mortification  was  the 

78 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

second  essential  element.  The  pagan  exalted  and  beau- 
tified the  body  while  neglecting  the  soul.  The  Christian 
exalted  and  beautified  the  soul  by  neglecting  and  even 
debasing  the  body.  The  early  ascetics  fled  into  the 
deserts  of  Egypt,  where  they  lived  as  hermits  or  anchor- 
ites. But  the  social  instinct  prevailed  in  the  course  of 
time,  and  by  c.  330  we  find  that  Pachomius  had  organ- 
ized a  monastery  on  the  island  of  Tebernae  in  the  Nile, 
where  the  monks  lived  apart  in  separate  cells  for  con- 
templation, but  came  together  for  meals,  prayers,  and 
religious  services.  St.  Basil  introduced  this  cenobitic 
system  into  Greece  c.  350,  and  Athanasius  and  Jerome 
transferred  it  to  the  West  shortly  afterward.  For  nearly 
two  centuries  each  monastery  in  the  West  lived  under  its 
own  regulations.  But  in  529  St.  Benedict,  a  Roman 
patrician  who  fled  the  corruption  of  the  city,  founded 
the  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  in  southern  Italy.  He 
drew  up  a  rule  or  code,  consisting  of  seventy-three  arti- 
cles, which  dealt  in  detail  with  the  organization  and  ad- 
ministration of  the  monastery  and  the  daily  life  of  the 
monks.  The  "Rule  of  Benedict"  was  gradually  adopted 
by  nearly  all  monasteries  of  the  West,  and  every  succeed- 
ing order  that  was  established  based  its  code  upon  it. 

Monastic  Ideals. — The  ideals  of  monasticism,  which 
are  best  summed  up  in  its  three  vows  of  poverty,  chas- 
tity, and  obedience,  would  seem  to  have  slight  connection 
with  education.  Poverty  meant  the  renunciation  of  ma- 
terial interests;  chastity,  of  family  relations;  and  obedi- 
ence, of  political  organization.  The  monks  neglected  the 
three  great  aspects  of  social  life,  viz.,  industrial  organi- 
zation, the  family,  and  the  state.  The  problem  of  recon- 
ciling individual  liberty  with  social  security  did  not 
exist  where  the  individual  voluntarily  surrendered  his 
liberty.  But  tho  these  ideals  would  seem  to  make  the 

79 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

institution  of  monasticism  anti-social,  they  had  a  very 
great  influence  in  the  civilizing  of  the  barbarians. 

The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict. — The  social  contributions  of 
monasticism  are  largely  the  result  of  St.  Benedict's  code, 
especially  of  the  forty-eighth  article,  which  prescribed 
at  least  seven  hours  daily  of  manual  labor  and  two  of 
reading.  The  provision  regarding  manual  labor  rescued 
the  latter  from  the  disrepute  into  which  slavery  had 
brought  it  and  furnished  a  densely  ignorant  population 
with  leaders  and  experts  in  the  manual  arts.  The  monks 
became  model  farmers,  draining  swamps,  introducing 
new  crops,  reducing  forests.  They  became,  moreover, 
model  craftsmen  in  wood,  iron,  leather,  silver,  and  gold. 
But  the  provision  requiring  at  least  two  hours  of  reading 
had  social  and  educational  effects  in  which  we  are  more 
directly  interested.  It  made  the  monastery : 

1.  The  publishing  house  of  the  Middle  Ages.     If  the 
monks  were  to  read,  manuscripts  had  to  be  reproduced 
and  multiplied.    Each  monastery  had  a  scriptorium,  in 
which  not  only  the  sacred  writings,  but  even  some  of  the 
Latin  classics  were  copied. 

2.  The  library  of  the  Middle  Ages.    In  the  course  of 
time  practically  every  monastery  had  a  library  in  which 
the  copied  manuscripts  were  placed.    And  tho  it  seldom 
contained  more  than  half  a  thousand  volumes,  and  those 
chiefly  of  sacred  literature,  there  grew  up  the  practice  of 
exchange  between  libraries  and  even  of  circulating  privi- 
leges for  outsiders. 

3.  The  center  of  literary  activity  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  monks  not  only  copied  manuscripts,  they  wrote  vol- 
umes.    The  monastic  chronicles  are  our  chief  source  of 
knowledge  of  the  institutions  and  customs  of  the  time; 
and,  tho  sometimes  unreliable  in  fact  because  of  the 
monks'  desire  to  enhance  the  position  of  the  Church,  they 

80 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

are  more  accurate  than  the  court  chronicles.  Moreover, 
the  monks  wrote  lives  of  the  saints,  sermons,  moral 
tales,  and  commentaries  on  the  Scriptures  and  Church 
Fathers. 

4.  The  school  of  the  Middle  Ages.  If  the  youths  who 
joined  the  orders  were  to  read  two  hours  per  day  in  the 
Scriptures,  the  Church  Fathers  and  the  missal,  and 
participate  in  the  copying  of  the  manuscripts,  they  had 
to  be  taught  at  least  to  read  and  to  write.  Hence,  tho 
nothing  appears  in  the  seventy-three  rules  about  either 
schools  or  teaching,  the  monastic  schools  arose  as  the 
result  of  the  prescription  of  reading. 

The  Monastic  School. — At  first  the  education  of  the 
monastery  was  devoted  wholly  to  the  oblati  (those  of- 
fered), i.  e.,  the  novices,  and  was  almost  entirely  relig- 
ious. Reading  and  writing  were  taught  as  necessary  to 
the  study  of  the  sacred  books,  singing  for  the  religious 
services,  and  reckoning  to  calculate  the  church  festivals. 
But  in  time  one  or  other  of  the  compendia  or  encyclo- 
pedias which  contained  in  condensed  form  the  elements 
of  the  classical  culture  was  used  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion which  began  to  develop.  Even  before  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  pagan  schools  Martianus  Capella  wrote, 
c.  A.D.  420,  a  treatise  called  ' '  The  Marriage  of  Philology 
and  Mercury, "  which  contains  in  a  dry,  allegorical 
form  the  teaching  then  given  in  the  seven  liberal  arts. 
This  was  one  of  the  favorite  textbooks  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Boethius,  the  "Last  of  the  Romans "  (480-524), 
wrote  brief  treatises  on  logic,  ethics,  arithmetic,  geome- 
try and  music,  which  were  extensively  used  as  textbooks. 
His  ' '  Consolations  of  Philosophy, ' '  the  most  widely  read 
secular  work  of  the  Middle  Ages,  gave  to  the  first  half  of 
that  period  practically  all  it  knew  of  the  ancient  phi- 
losophers and  moralists.  Cassiodorus  (490-585)  in  his 

81 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

work,  "On  the  Liberal  Arts  and  Sciences,"  introduced 
the  term,  ''the  seven  liberal  arts."  Isidore  of  Seville 
(570-636),  the  bishop  of  that  city,  in  his  "Origines" 
or  ' '  Etymologiae, "  which  was  an  encyclopedia  of  all 
the  knowledge  of  the  day,  used  the  terms  trivium  and 
quadrivmm.  Isidore  became  a  chief  authority  in  the 
monastic  schools,  and  after  his  time  the  seven  liberal 
arts  became  the  traditional  curriculum. 

The  Trivium  and  Quadrivium. — Qrammar,  rhetoric, 
and  dialectic  (logic)  formed  the  arts  part  of  the  curric- 
ulum; arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy  and  music,  the 
science^part.  The  content  of  eacTT  subject  is  not  well 
indicated  by  the  name.  Grammar  included  literature, 
and  in  the  stronger  monasteries  not  only  Virgil  but  other 
pagan  authors  were  studied.  Arithmetic,  on  the  other 
hand,  consisted  of  nothing  but  calculating,  until  the  in- 
troduction of  the  so-called  "Arabic"  notation,  when  its 
content  was  much  increased.  In  fact,  with  each  of  the 
seven  studies  there  was  a  growth  during  the  Middle 
Ages  from  the  very  rudiments  of  the  subject  to  a  broad 
field.  Geometry  came  to  include  not  only  the  complete 
system  of  Euclid,  but  whatever  was  known  of  geography 
and  surveying.  Astronomy,  at  first  devoted  to  the  ar- 
ranging of  feasts  and  fast  days,  came  to  include  a  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  both  astronomy  and  physics. 
Rhetoric,  at  first  needed  merely  for  drawing  up  official 
letters,  gradually  covered  a  good  deal  of  history  and 
some  law.  The  importance  attached  to  a  subject  de- 
pended upon  the  needs  of  the  period.  During  the  first 
half  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  a  knowledge  of  Latin 
was  the  greatest  essential,  grammar  and  rhetoric  were 
most  emphasized.  When  the  Saracen  learning  began 
to  spread  from  Spain,  arithmetic,  geometry  and  astron- 
omy received  much  attention.  After  the  eleventh  cen- 

82 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


, 


THE  MEDIEVAL  SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION  SUMMARIZED 

'rom    Cubberley's    "History    of    Education    Syllabus."      Macmil- 

Ian  Co. 


tury,  during  the  long  scholastic  controversy  between 
nominalism  and  realism,  dialectic  was  the  chief  subject. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  in  the  ordinary  monasteries 
only  the  rudiments  of  these  subjects  were  given  in  the 

83 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

early  Middle  Ages,  and  that  the  broader  knowledge  was 
confined  to  a  few  of  the  great  monasteries,  such  as  Cluny 
and  Tours  in  France,  St.  Gall  in  Switzerland,  Fulda 
and  Reichenau  in  Germany,  York  and  Canterbury  in 
England,  Monte  Cassino  in  Italy.  The  study  of  the 
Greek  language  and  the  Greek  literature  rapidly  dis- 
appeared on  the  Continent,  but  was  continued  with  en- 
thusiasm in  Ireland,  the  "university  of  western  Eu- 
rope, ' '  as  late  as  the  tenth  century.  In  fact  it  was  from 
Ireland  that  scholars  brought  the  love  of  learning  which 
distinguished  the  monasteries  of  northern  England  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  and  made  Wearmouth 
and  Yarrow,  where  the  Venerable  Bede  wrote  his  Chron- 
icle, c.  725,  two  of  the  great  centers  of  learning  for 
Europe. 

Administration  of  the  Monastic  Schools. — No  one  could 
be  admitted  as  a  regular  member  of  the  order  until  he 
was  eighteen ;  therefore,  as  boys  of  ten  were  received  into 
the  monastery,  the  course  often  lasted  seven  or  eight 
years,  altho  the  required  novitiate  was  only  two  years. 
In  the  later  medieval  period  boys  who  did  not  intend  to 
enter  the  order  were  also  admitted.  These  were  called 
externi,  in  distinction  to  the  oblati  or  interni;  it  is 
doubtful  whether  they  received  such  detailed  instruc- 
tion as  the  oblati.  The  chief  method  of  teaching  used 
was  that  of  question  and  answer;  but,  because  of  the 
scarcity  of  books,  the  teachers  had  much  recourse  to  dic- 
tation and  the  pupils  to  memorizing.  The  discipline  was 
severe,  the  teachers  making  frequent  use  of  the  rod.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  no  instruction  in  the  vernacu- 
lar was  given  in  any  of  these  schools,  and  that  they 
were  secondary  schools  rather  than  elementary.  The 
only  purely  elementary  schools  were  the  song  schools 
attached  to  the  cathedrals,  in  which  reading  and  writing 

84 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

were  taught,  as  well  as  singing.  Another  fact  to  be 
remembered  is  that  many  of  the  convents  or  nunneries 
had  schools  in  which  girls  were  taught  reading,  writing, 
reckoning,  singing,  and  sewing  and  embroidery  for  the 
production  of  the  altar  cloths  and  other  religious  ma- 
terials. 

Charlemagne  and  the  Revival  of  Learning. — The  devel- 
opment of  education  during  the  Middle  Ages  was  not  a 
steady  growth  from  the  fifth  to  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  status  of  learning  depended  to  a  great  extent  upon 
political  conditions.  It  was  far  lower  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury than  in  the  ninth  and  higher  in  the  ninth  than  in 
the  tenth.  This  was  chiefly  due  to  the  great  impulse 
given  to  education  by  Charlemagne,  who  reigned  771- 
814.  Charlemagne  had  conquered  many  of  the  pagan 
German  peoples  to  the  east,  and  he  was  anxious  to  extend 
to  them  as  much  of  the  Eoman  culture  as  remained. 
Moreover,  he  felt  that  the  different  peoples  of  his  domin- 
ions could  never  be  brought  into  a  real  unity  without 
a  common  language,  culture  and  ideals.  To  attain 
this  he  adopted  three  measures  which  proved  most  suc- 
cessful. 

The  Palace  School. — First,  he  established  the  Palace 
School.  He  called  together  scholars  of  repute  from  all 
over  Europe  to  teach  in  the  school,  with  Alcuin  of  York, 
the  greatest  scholar  of  the  day,  as  master.  The  members 
of  the  royal  family,  including  Charlemagne  himself,  and 
the  sons  of  the  nobility  were  the  students.  By  means  of 
this  school  Charlemagne  hoped  to  secure  intelligent  ad- 
ministrators both  in  church  and  state.  Moreover  it 
would  serve  as  a  model  from  which  teachers  could  be 
sent  to  found  similar  schools  thruout  the  empire.  To 
maintain  a  constant  supervision  of  the  school,  Charle- 
magne had  it  accompany  him  on  his  various  circuits. 

85 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Capitularies. — Secondly,  Charlemagne  made  the 
greatest  use  of  the  instruments  at  hand,  viz.,  the  cathe- 
dral and  monastic  schools.  Beginning  with  the  capitu- 
lary or  decree  of  787,  he  issued  a  series  of  decrees  di- 
rected, for  the  cathedral  schools,  to  the  bishops  and,  for 
the  monastic  schools,  to  the  abbots,  ordering  them  to  see 
that  every  cathedral  and  monastery  had  its  school,  pre- 
scribing the  studies  that  should  be  taught,  and  com- 
manding an  earnest  study  of  religious  books  by  the  regu- 
lar and  secular  clergy. 

The  Missi  Dominici. — Thirdly,  Charlemagne  as  a  great 
statesman  knew  that  the  decrees,  to  be  of  any  value, 
would  have  to  be  enforced.  Hence  he  empowered  his 
official  messengers,  the  missi  dominici,  without  previous 
notice  to  enter  any  monastery  and  observe  whether  his 
orders  were  being  carried  out.  An  unfavorable  report 
would  bring  upon  the  offending  monastery  the  wrath 
of  the  emperor  and  probably  result  in  the  removal  of 
its  head.  These  measures  necessarily  caused  an  imme- 
diate and  decided  improvement  in  the  number  and  char- 
acter of  the  schools.  Nor  did  this  educational  activity 
cease  with  the  death  of  Charlemagne.  In  817  his  suc- 
cessor ordered  the  establishment  of  schools  for  externi 
as  well  as  for  oblati,  and  it  was  only  after  the  troubled 
times  following  the  division  of  the  empire  and  the  inva- 
sions of  the  Northmen  that  the  cause  of  education  on 
the  Continent  received  a  setback,  from  which  it  did  not 
recover  until  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century. 

In  the  meantime  Alfred  of  England,  who  reigned 
871-901,  followed  the  example  of  Charlemagne  in  estab- 
lishing a  palace  school  and  calling  learned  scholars  to 
his  aid.  In  order  to  provide  material  for  study  and 
reflection  and  to  spread  learning  as  widely  as  possible, 
he  translated  into  the  vernacular  a  number  of  works, 

86 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

the  chief  among  which  was  Boethius'  "Consolations  of 
Philosophy. ' '  Even  the  ravages  of  the  Danes  could  not 
destroy  all  the  good  he  accomplished. 

Alcuin  (735-804), — Alcuin 's  service  to  the  cause  of 
education  was  not  limited  to  his  work  as  master  of  Char- 
lemagne 's  Palace  School.  In  794  he  retired  from  that 
position  to  become  Abbot  of  Tours,  the  richest  monastery 
of  France,  which  he  made  a  center  of  learning.  Alcuin 
had  not  a  creative  mind,  and  his  treatises  on  grammar, 
rhetoric,  dialectic  and  arithmetic,  written  in  the  catechet- 
ical form,  mark  no  advance  in  either  thought  or  matter. 
In  fact  he  was  essentially  a  conservative  and  did  not  ap- 
prove of  the  advanced  views  of  the  Irish  scholars.  But  he 
sent  scores,  of  scholars  thruout  Europe  to.  teaeh,  and  he 
rendered  an  equally  great  service  in  jjditing  the  manu- 
scripts of  early  writings  which  in  the  course  of  repeated- 
transcription  had  become  filled  with  error  as  well  as  with  _ 
barbarous Jjatin. 

Eabanus  Maurus  (776-856). — The  most  noted  pupil  of 
Alcuin  was  Rabanus  Maurus,  who  made  the  monastery 
of  Fulda  in  Northern  Germany  as  important  a  center  of 
learning  as  Tours.  He  was  a  man  of  greater  initiative 
than  Alcuin  and  showed  greater  originality  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  same  subjects.  Moreover,  he  considered 
dialectic,  not  grammar,  as  the  chief  instrument  of  learn- 
ing and  power.  His  greatest  work  was  ' '  On  the  Educa- 
tion of  the  Clergy/'  which  contains  his  views  on  the 
seven  liberal  arts. 

Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  (c.  810-875). — But  the  most 
virile  intellectual  work  of  the  period  was  done  by  the 
Irish  scholars.  Their  influence  was  greatly  extended  on 
the  continent  when  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  was  called 
(c.  850)  to  be  master  of  the  Palace  School.  This  re- 
markable man  brought  with  him  a  thoro  knowledge  of 

87 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Greek  and  a  love  of  the  pagan  authors.  Moreover  he 
had  a  more  vigorous  mind  than  any  of  his  predecessors 
or  contemporaries,  emphasized  the  study  of  dialectic,  and 
stimulated  speculation  upon  questions  of  theology.  He 
was  really  the  forerunner  of  scholasticism. 

B.     CHIVALBJC  EDUCATION 

Nature  of  Chivalry. — The  German  warrior  was  char- 
acterized by  a  spirit  of  personal  independence  and  vol- 
untary loyalty  to  a  chief.  When  the  dominions  of  the 
Roman  empire  were  conquered,  the  land  was  divided 
among  these  warriors,  and  military  service  on  horseback 
gradually  became  limited  to  those  holding  land.  The 
ideals  of  obedience  and  service  developed  by  these  social 
conditions  and  refined  by  Christianity  remained  the 
ideals  of  the  knight  until  he  disappeared  with  the  pass- 
ing of  the  Middle  Ages.  These  ideals  had  the  great- 
est influence  in  modifying  the  lawless  selfishn^§s_pf  a 
time  wKeh  might  made  right.  The  good  social  usage 
and  social  form  developed  in  the  maintenance  of  these 
ideals  became  known  as  chivalry,  and,  like  every  other 
institution,  it  slowly  changed  its  character  with  time. 
While  religion,  honor,  and  gallantry  remained  always 
the  springs  of  action  for  the  knight,  during  the  period 
before  the  Crusades,  when  chivalry  became  definitely  or- 
ganized, the  religious  aspect  was  the  most  prominent. 
This  was  the  period  of  the  Chanson  de  Roland,  the 
Arthurianjegends,  the  search  for'tEe  Holy  Grail.  After 
the  Crusades  the  secular  element  became  more  promi- 
nent, devotion  to  one's  lady  superseding  devotion  to  the 
Church  in  importance.  This  was  the  period  of  the  trou- 
badours in  France  and  of  the  minnesingers  in  Germany. 
In  the  course  of  time  the  customs  and  rules  of  chivalry, 

88 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

which  required  a  definite  education  for  their  acquisition, 
became  fixed  and  formal ;  and  this  led  to  the  artificialities 
and  absurdities  which  accompanied  its  downfall. 

Place  of  the  Knight  in  Medieval  Society. — Until  about 
1200  medieval  society  was  divided  into  three  great 
classes:  serfs,  clergy,  and^knights.  The  commercial  and 
industrial  towns  had  only  begun  to  develop,  the  uni- 
versities had  not  yet  been  established,  and  the  Crusades 
had  not  yet  discovered  the  importance  of  the  yeomanry. 
From  the  standpoint  of  education  the  serfs  may  be  neg- 
lected, as  few  received  any  education  beyond  that  in 
religion  given  by  the  parish  priests.  The  education  of 
the  clergy  has  been  described,  and  whatever  education 
the  yeomen  received  was  obtained  either  as  externi  in  the 
monasteries  or  in  the  schools  attached  to  the  churches. 
But  the  knight  received  a  prolonged  training  which,  tho 
without  much  intellectual  content,  had  profound  in- 
fluences upon  the  individual  and  society.  In  the  earliest 
medieval  period  it  was  customary  for  the  inferior  no- 
bility to  send  their  sons  and  daughters  as  hostages  to 
their  overlords.  Moreover,  wardship  by  an  overlord, 
i.  e.,  the  legal  custody  of  orphan  children,  brought  a 
considerable  number  of  such  children  to  the  lord 's  castle. 
It  was  necessary  to  provide  proper  training  for  these 
boys  and  girls,  and  for  others,  not  wards,  who  were  sent 
to  the  court  by  parents  with  a  view  to  their  making  suit- 
able marriages. 

The  Education  of  the  Knight. — Until  the  age  of  seven 
the  sons  of  the  gentry  and  nobility  remained  at  home, 
being  educated  in  morals  and  religion.  At  seven  they 
went  to  the  overlord's  castle  and  began  the  long  process 
of  training  which  was  to  end  only  when  they  were 
clothed  with  the  armor  of  knighthood.  From  seven  to 
fourteen  a  boy  was  practically  apprenticed  as  a  page 

89 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  a  lady,  from  whom  lie  learned  good  manners,  reading, 
writing,  singing,  and  dancing,  and  sometimes  also  to 
write  verse,  to  play  the  harp,  and  to  play  chess.,  His 
chief  function  within  doors  was  to  perform  the  many 
personal  duties  that  attached  to  his  position  as  page. 
Outdoors  he  was  taught  to  swim,  ride,  box,  wrestle,  and 
to  joust  at  a  dummy  man  called  the  "quintain."  At 
fourteen  the  page  became  a  squire,  and  his  chief  service 
was  now  with  his  knight  or  lord.  He  still  waited  upon 
his  lady,  with  whom  he  hunted,  sang,  and  played  chess 
and  the  harp,  but  his  pleasures  consisted  chiefly  in  hunt- 
ing and  hawking  with  his  lord.  His  duties  were  most 
numerous,  for  he  waited  upon  his  lord's  table,  made  his 
bed,  groomed  his  horse,  kept  his  armor  perfect,  attended 
him  in  the  tournament  or  in  actual  warfare,  and  inci- 
dentally learned  all  the  arts  of  war,  especially  how  to 
fight  with  sword,  spear,  and  battle-axe.  At  twenty-one 
he  was  knighted  in  a  most  elaborate  ceremony,  tho  some 
individuals,  because  of  lack  of  property,  remained 
squires  all  their  lives.  The  ceremony  itself  was  pre- 
ceded by  weeks  of  religious  preparation  and  by  a  night's 
solitary  vigil  in  the  church.  In  the  morning,  after  par- 
taking of  the  sacrament,  his  sword  was  blessed  by  the 
priest  or  bishop ;  he  took  the  oath  ' '  to  defend  the  church, 
to  attack  the  wicked,  to  respect  the  priesthood,  to  pro- 
tect women  and  the  poor,  to  preserve  the  country  in  tran- 
quillity, and  to  shed  his  blood  in  behalf  of  his  brethren" ; 
and  he  was  then  knighted  by  his  lord.  Sometimes  a  squire 
was  knighted  on  the  field  of  battle  for  some  act  consid- 
ered particularly  commendable. 

Education  of  the  Girl  in  the  Castle. — While  the  young 
man  was  receiving  the  education  described  above,  his 
sister  was  receiving  a  training  similar  in  practically  all 
of  its  features  except  the  physical  and  military.  In  ad- 

90 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

dition,  a  knowledge  of  household  duties  and  of  sewing, 
weaving,  and  embroidery  was  given.  It  was  probably  a 
broader  education  than  that  given  in  the  convent;  at 
least  it  included  social  features  usually  neglected  there. 
Effects  of  Chivalric  Education. — The  training  in  "the 
rudiments  of  love,  of  war,  and  of  religion"  had  a  most 
beneficial  influence  Jn_softening  and  J^finingJ&e  habits 
and  customs  of  a  harsh  age.  Tho  faults  and  even  vices 
still  characterized  the  average  knight,  he  had  a  higher 
regard  for  womanhood,  for  the  sacredness  of  an  oath, 
for  courtesy  to  his  fellow  men  than  he  could  possibly  have 
had  except  for  the  training  he  received  in  the  castle  in 
the  ideals  of  chivalry.  Moreover,  tho  this  was  some- 
times an  education  merely  of  worldly  refinement,  it  was 
a  foil  to  the  "otherworldliness"  of  the  monk  and  nun. 
It  is  to  chivalry  also  that  we  owe  the  beginning  of  the 
vernacular  literatures,  in  the  tales,  ballads  and  lyrics* 
that~were  sung  during" the  long  winter  evenings  in  the 
castle.  Finally  the  ideals  of  obedience  and  service  upon 
which  chivalry  was  based  had  ji  spIendicLeffect in  modi- 
fying jbhe  jextreme  jndividuaiisjmL  of .Jthe  German.  For 
this  was  as  necessary  as  a  modification  of  the  excessive 
state  control  of  the  ancient  world,  to  secure  a  wise  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  reconciling  individual  liberty  with 
social  stability. 


C.     SARACEN  EDUCATION 

The  Arabs  in  Contact  with  Greek  Culture. — We  have 
seen  that  the  greatest  of  the  catechetical  schools  were  de- 
veloped in  the  East  at  Alexandria,  Antioch,  Ephesus, 
and  other  places,  and  that  for  more  than  a  century  after 
their  establishment  they  showed  a  liberal  attitude  to- 
wards the  Hellenic  culture.  By  the  fifth  century,  how- 

91 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

ever,  the  Eastern  Church  had  become  characterized  by 
a  narrow  orthodoxy  which  caused  the  expulsion  of  all 
suspected  of  the  various  heresies  that  had  resulted  from, 
the  attempt  to  amalgamate  Greek  philosophy  with  Chris- 
tianity. The  most  important  of  these  expulsions,  educa- 
tionally, was  that  made  by  the  Council  of  Ephesus, 
A.D.  431,  when  it  proscribed  the  Hellenized  theology  of 
Nestorius,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  The  Nestorians 
fled  to  the  cities  of  Syria,  especially  to  Nisibis,  Antioch, 
and  Edessa,  beyond  the  control  of  the  Eastern  Church. 
There  they  developed  splendid  schools  where  the  study 
of  Greek  science  and  philosophy  was  carried  on,  not 
only  by  means  of  translations  into  Syriac,  but  from 
original  Greek  treatises.  Hence  when,  after  conquering 
the  ignorant  and  superstitious  tribes  of  Arabia,  Moham- 
medanism moved  westward  into  Syria  (635),  it  came  into 
contact  with  a  people  of  very  different  intellectual  cali- 
ber, for  whom  Mohammedanism  had  to  be  rationalized 
before  it  could  be  accepted.  By  the  end  of  the  next 
century  a  great  educational  movement  had  commenced 
thru  the  influence  of  the  Nestorians,  having  for  its  ob- 
ject the  translation  into  Arabic  of  the  works  of  the 
Greek  scientists,  philosophers,  and  physicians,  ^he 
movement  continued  to  grow  in  vigor  during  the  next 
two  centuries,  and  the  tenth  century  found  Damascus, 
Bagdad,  and,  other  Saracen  cities  renowned  for  their 
learning.  The  Arabs  were  assimilators  rather  than  crea- 
tors and  absorbed  not  only  from  Greek  but  from  Hindu 
and  other  sources.  Avicenna  (980-1037)  wrote  treatises 
on  mathematics,  medicine  and  philosophy;  and  to  his 
influence  is  due  the  encyclopedia  arranged  at  Basra  by 
the  "Brothers  of  Sincerity/'  This  encyclopedia  is  an 
exposition  of  the  entire  Arabian  learning,  and  closes 
with  an  attempt  at  harmonizing  faith  and  reason.  But 

92 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

the  orthodox  Mohammedans  were  greatly  opposed  to  the 
Greek  learning  and  its  influence  on  their  religion;  and 
finally,  c.  1050,  its  adherents  were  driven  out  and  found 
refuge  among  the  liberal  Moslems  of  Spain  and  western 
Africa. 

Saracen  Education  in  Spain. — A  splendid  culture  re- 
sulted from  the  introduction  of  the  Eastern  learning  into 
the  West.  In  the  twelfth  century  a  well-organized  sys- 
tem of  education  was  developed  thruout  the  Mohamme- 
dan dominions  in  Spain.  In  all  towns  and  cities  were 
established  elementary  or  mosque  schools,  where  were 
taught  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  geography,  gram- 
mar, and  religion.  In  the  large  cities  like  Cordova, 
Granada,  Seville,  Toledo,  and  Salamanca  universities 
were  founded,  where  not  only  was  the  existing  knowl- 
edge taught  by  Moorish  and  Jewish  scholars,  but  bril- 
liant applications  of  it  were  made  in  mathematics, 
science,  and  philosophy.  The  Moorish  scholars  intro- 
duced into  arithmetic  the  Arabic  notation  which  they 
had  borrowed  from  the  Hindus.  They  made  remark- 
able advances  in  physics,  physiology,  medicine,  surgery, 
and  pharmacy.  They  taught  geography  from  globes,  and 
astronomy  from  observatories.  They  made  inventions, 
such  as  the  pendulum  clock,  and  discoveries,  such  as  ni- 
tric and  sulphuric  acids.  They  used  the  compass  and 
gunpowder,  raised  cotton  and  cultivated  the  silkworm, 
and  in  navigation,  commerce,  and  industries  were  far  in 
advance  of  Christian  Europe. 

Influence  of  Averroes  upon  European  Thought. — But  it 
was  not  in  these  directions  that  their  greatest  influence 
was  exerted  upon  western  Europe,  but  in  the  domain  of 
thought.  It  is  hard  to  overemphasize  the  influence  of 
Averroes  (1126-1198)  upon  the  thinkers  of  the  later  Mid- 
dle Ages,  Christian  and  Jewish.  He  was  the  greatest 

93 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

commentator  Aristotle  that  appeared  from  the  fall 
of  Borne  to  the  Eenaissance.  He  freed  the  master's 
thought  from  the  Neo-Platonism  with  which  it  had  be- 
come overlaid  and  introduced  a  spirit  of  rationalism  into 
Moslem  theology  which  eventually  proved  his  undoing. 
His  commentaries  on  Aristotle  were  translated  into  Latin 
and  became  authoritative  with  the  schoolmen,  wielding 
a  great  influence  upon  such  distinguished  scholars  as 
Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas.  Hence  after 
fanatical  orthodoxy  among  the  Moors  drove  learning 
out  of  Spain  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  the 
philosophy  of  Averroes  and  the  medicine  of  Avicenna 
continued  to  influence  the  thought  of  Christian  scholars 
for  centuries. 

D.     THE  EDUCATIONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  SCHOLASTICISM 

Origin  of  Scholasticism, — The  early  Middle  Ages,  from 
A.D.  500-1000,  formed  an  age  of  faith,  in  which  men  ac- 
cepted their  beliefs  without  question.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  period  a  number  of  conditions  arose  which  pro- 
foundly affected  that  attitude  of  mind.  The  attacks  of 
the  Norsemen  ceased  entirely  and  gave  opportunity  for 
the  development  of  civil  and  intellectual  life.  The  learn- 
ing of  the  Saracens  began  to  percolate  into  Christian 
Europe,  challenging  the  Christian  to  defend  the  doc- 
trines of  his  religion ;  and  in  the  twelfth  century  many 
of  the  Crusaders  returned  from  the  East,  influenced  in- 
tellectually by  what  they  saw  and  heard  among  Greeks 
and  Arabs,  and  seeking  a  solution  of  the  doubts  that  had 
arisen.  Hence  the  necessity  of  showing  the  reasonable- 
ness of  the  Church  doctrines  and  restating  them  in  a 
more  rational  and  systematic  form.  This,  then,  is  the 
essence  of  scholasticism — the  harmonizing  of  faith  and 

94 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

reason.  It  soon  resulted  in  a  conflict  between  authority 
and  reason,  but  its  characteristic  attitude  was  one  of 
conciliation.  Scholasticism  in  fact  is  not  a  system  of 
philosophy  so  much  as  a  method  of  philosophizing. 

Nature  of  Scholasticism. — Whenever  a  new  intellectual 
impulse  arises  among  men  it  will  naturally  be  directed 
to  that  aspect  of  human  thought  or  activity  in  which 
men  are  at  the  time  most  interested.  Hence  the  educa- 
tional renaissance  of  the  twelfth  century,  resulting,  as 
it  did,  in  the  intellectual  product  called  scholasticism 
and  in  the  institution  known  as  the  medieval  university, 
where  scholasticism  found  lodgment,  was  naturally  con- 
cerned with  religion.  Keligion  was  what  men  were  in- 
terested in.  Religion  imposed  its  language  and  thought 
upon  every  other  activity  of  man,  whether  architecture, 
music,  or  literature.  The  Church,  the  institution  in 
which  religion  was  embodied,  became  chiefly  interested 
in  giving  its  great  doctrines  proper  philosophical  state- 
ments and  reducing  them  all  to  a  harmonized  system. 
In  performing  this  task  there  broke  out  among  its  in- 
tellectual leaders  the  great  controversy  over  the  nature 
of  knowledge,  the  problem  of  universals,  which  divided 
the  schoolmen  for  centuries  into  the  two  camps  of  the 
realists  and  the  nominalists. 

The  Controversy  Between  Realists  and  Nominalists. — 
Anselm  of  Canterbury  (1034-1109),  often  called  the 
father  of  scholasticism,  based  the  realist  position  on  the 
•Platonic  doctrine  that  ideas  constitute  the  only  real 
existence.  The  concept,  or  general  term,  is  the  archetype 
in  the  divine  mind  upon  which  the  phenomenal  thing 
has  been  modeled.  Koscellinus  of  Compiegne  (1050- 
1106)  based  the  nominalist  position  on  an  interpretation 
of  Aristotle  to  the  effect  that  ideas,  concepts  or  uni- 
versals are  only  names  which  can  be  applied  to  a  class 

95 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  individual  things  and  that  reality  consists  in  the  indi- 
vidual concrete  objects.  The  realists  contended  that  as 
the  human  senses  are  deceptive,  revealed  truth  alone  is 
reliable  and  human  experience  and  human  reason  may 
be  trusted  only  so  far  as  they  support  it.  The  nominalist 
position  implied  that  truth  can  be  reached  only  thru 
investigation  by  means  of  reason.  Realism  became  the 
orthodox  view  of  the  Church,  and  Roscellinus  was  com- 
pelled to  recant.  His  fate  discouraged  nominalism  for 
two  centuries,  but  his  critical  work  was  continued  by  his 
pupil,  Abelard  (1079-1142),  the  best  known  of  the  early 
schoolmen.  Abelard 's  position,  conceptualism,  was  a 
compromise  between  the  other  two.  He  held  that  a 
concept  or  universal  or  class  term  had  no  objective  ex- 
istence. Nevertheless  it  was  not  merely  a  name  ap- 
plicable to  a  number  of  individual  objects,  but  the  sum 
total  of  the  qualities  those  objects  have  in  common.  Tho 
Abelard 's  philosophical  position  was  a  conciliatory  one, 
his  great  influence  as  a  teacher  and  his  writings  were 
distinctly  critical  of  the  orthodox  position.  Moreover, 
in  his  influential  work  "Sic  et  Non"  he  maintained  that 
reason  was  antecedent  to  faith  and  the  true  fountain 
of  much  of  Christian  doctrine.  Tho  he  was  twice  con- 
demned, his  influence  continued,  and  when  in  the  early 
thirteenth  century,  as  the  result  of  the  Crusaders'  con- 
quest of  Constantinople,  Aristotle's  "Ethics,"  "Phys- 
ics," and  "Metaphysics"  were  recovered  to  the  "West,  the 
tendency  started  by  Abelard  received  a  great  impulse. 
The  Church  itself  adopted  Aristotle  and  made  him  her 
chief  bulwark  of  defense.  Philosophy  and  theology  be- 
came allies,  and  during  the  thirteenth  century  scholasti- 
cism reached  its  zenith  in  the  organization  of  theological 
views  into  perfectly  logical  systems  by  a  number  of 
deep  and  subtle  thinkers.  The  greatest  of  these  was 

96 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Thomas  Aquinas  (1225-1274),  whose  "Summa  Theo- 
logiae"  has  remained  the  authoritative  presentation  of 
the  beliefs  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church.  It  is  not 
only  that,  however,  but  also  the  most  complete  exposi- 
tion of  the  knowledge  of  the  times,  all  organized  into 
a  logical  system  culminating  in  theology.  The  harmony 
in  the  scholastic  world  following  the  work  of  Aquinas 
was  destroyed  as  the  result  of  the  revival  of  nominalism 
by  William  of  Occam  (1280-1347).  He  denied  any  ra- 
tional basis  to  theological  doctrines  and  asserted  that 
they  were  entirely  matters  of  faith.  In  other  words,  he 
asserted  the  existence  of  two  types  of  truth,  the  results 
respectively  of  revelation  and  reason.  The  tendency 
after  him  became  more  and  more  to  adopt  the  truth 
which  was  supported  by  reason,  and  that  meant  the  pass- 
ing of  scholasticism. 

The  Method  of  Scholasticism. — The  early  schoolmen 
were  usually  associated  with  cathedral  or  monastic 
schools,  which  in  some  cases  developed  into  universities 
as  the  result  of  the  intellectual  awakening  involved  in 
scholasticism.1  The  method  of  presenting  subjects  most 
generally  used  in  the  schools  2  was  now  superseded  by 
the  metKod  of  logical  analysis.  The  entire  subject  or 
textbook  was  divided  into  appropriate  parts,  each  of 
which  was  subdivided  into  %  heads,  which  in  turn  were 
divided  into  subheads  down  to  the  particular  proposi- 
tion. In  the  universities  the  analytical  method  was  ap- 
plied to  the  form  of  argumentation  as  well  as  to  subject 
matter.  First  the  problem  was  stated,  then  the  argu- 
ments and  authorities  for  the  unorthodox  solutions  were 
given  and  refuted,  then  those  for  the  orthodox  solution 
were  presented,  and  finally  the  several  objections  to  it 

1  See  p.  99. 

1  See  p.  81. 

97 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

were  answered  in  the  same  systematic  manner.  The  chief 
textbook  for  use  in  the  schools  was  the  ' '  Sententiae ' ' 
(Opinions)  of  Peter  the  Lombard  (1100-1160),  a  pupil 
of  Abelard  who  taught  at  Paris.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  scholastic  period  the  "Summa  Theologiae"  of 
Thomas  Aquinas  was  equally  popular. 

Influence  of  Scholasticism. — The  method  of  scholasti- 
cism produced  minds  as  keen  and  subtle  as  are  met  in 
any  period  of  history.  The  attention  of  these  minds 
was  directed  towards  abstract  and  metaphysical  ques- 
tions, not  towards  the  world  of  man  and  nature ;  hence 
comparatively  little  actual  progress  was  made  in  widen- 
ing the  boundaries  of  knowledge.  But  their  analytical 
method  showed  that  there  were  two  sides  to  every  ques- 
tion ;  and,  with  the  revival  of  nominalism  under  Occam, 
the  insistence  upon  experience  as  a  source  of  truth  paved 
the  way  for  the  Renaissance  and  the  development  of  mod- 
ern science.  Moreover,  scholasticism  gave  a  great  im- 
petus to  intellectual  pursuits,  and  resulted  in  the  main- 
tenance of  a  large  class  of  learned  men  at  a  time  when 
the  fighter  was  exalted.  In  fact  it  was  only  in  its  de- 
cay, when  the  schoolmen's  discussions  degenerated  into 
endless  and  profitless  quibbles  over  the  use  of  terms, 
that  scholasticism  lost  its  educational  value  and  signifi- 
cance. 

E.     THE  MEDIEVAL  UNIVERSITY 

Rise  of  the  Universities. — The  thirteenth  century  was 
a  period  of  remarkable  progress  in  human  history.  The 
last  of  the  pagan  Teutons,  the  Northmen,  had  accepted 
Christianity  and  thereby  given  western  Europe  a  period 
of  comparative  peace  in  which  to  develop.  The  Crusades 
destroyed  the  isolation  of  feudalism,  stimulated  the 
growth  of  cities  and  commerce,  and  greatly  broadened 

98 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

the  horizon  of  the  western  European.  Contact  with 
Saracen  learning  and  the  securing  of  copies  of  Aris- 
totle's works  gave  a  great  impulse  to  intellectual  pur- 
suits. The  numbers  of  students  who  attended  the  more 
prominent  cathedral  and  monastic  schools  increased.  In 
some  of  these  schools  distinguished  teachers  began  to 
lecture  on  the  new  interests  that  had  arisen,  and  at- 
tracted increased  numbers  of  students.  This  in  turn 
made  a  demand  for  additional  teachers,  and  then  the 
elements  of  a  medieval  university  were  present,  viz., 
teachers  and  students.  There  were  for  a  long  time  no 
buildings,  libraries,  or  other  appurtenances.  In  this  way 
the  University  of  Paris,  the  greatest  of  the  medieval 
universities,  was  developed  from  the  cathedral  school 
of  Notre  Dame,  chiefly  as  the  result  of  the  brilliant  work 
in  philosophy  of  .^kelarji  and  of  his  pupil,  Peter  the 
Lombard.  Paris  was  not  the  first  of  the  medieval  uni- 
versities, however.  Already  a  vigorous  school  of  medi- 
cine had  arisen  at  Salerno,  near  Naples,  a  place  noted 
for  its  salubrious  climate,  at  which  invalids  sojourned 
to  take  advantage  of  the  mineral  springs  that  were  found 
there.  It  is  supposed  to  have  received  its  chief  impulse 
from  the  labors  of  a  monk,  Constantius  Africanus,  who 
had  traveled  extensively  in  the  East  and  translated  into 
Latin  the  best  of  the  Greek  and  Arabic  authorities  on 
medicine.  About  the  same  time  a  great  interest  had 
arisen  in  the  study  of  law  in  northern  Italy.  This  was 
due  to  the  struggles  of  the  cities  there  to  retain  their 
privileges  against  the  encroachments  of  the  German  em- 
perors, privileges  which  depended  upon  charters,  edicts, 
and  grants  running  back  to  the  time  of  the  Roman  em- 
perors. There  were  several  cities  in  which  the  new  study 
was  undertaken,  but  Bologna  became  preeminent  as  the 
result  of  the  work  of  the  great  jurist  Irnerius  (c.  1067- 

99 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

1138).  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  no  specific  dates 
can  be  assigned  for  the  beginnings  of  the  earliest  uni- 
versities. They  had  existed  for  years  as  professional 
schools  for  the  study  of  some  special  subject  before 
they  received  charters  from  popes  or  sovereigns.  Salerno 
never  received  a  charter  but  was  united  to  the  school  at 
Naples  which  the  Emperor  Frederick  II  chartered  as  a 
university  in  1224.  Bologna  was,  therefore,  really  the 
earliest  of  the  medieval  universities,  having  received  a 
charter  from  Emperor  Frederick  I  in  1158.  Paris  re- 
ceived official  recognition  in  1180  from  Louis  VII.  As 
already  stated  these  institutions  at  first  taught  but  one 
subject  and,  even  when  they  received  a  charter,  did 
not  always  undertake  lectures  in  each  of  the  four  facul- 
ties— arts,  law,  medicine,  and  theology — which  consti- 
tuted the  work  of  the  medieval  universities.  Many  of 
the  later  universities  were  started  as  secession  move- 
ments from  the  early  institutions,  e.  g.,  Oxford  from 
Paris,  Cambridge  from  Oxford,  Padua  from  Bologna, 
Leipzig  from  Prague  (which  was  the  first  German  uni- 
versity) .  But  after  the  early  thirteenth  century  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  authorities  vied  with  each  other  in 
the  establishment  of  universities,  so  that  by  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century  there  were  at  least  seventy-five  in 
existence. 

It  is  well  for  the  student  at  the  outset  of  his  study 
of  the  medieval  university  to  understand  the  essential 
differences  between  a  university  and  a  school.  They  are : 

1.  The  university  was  chartered  by  pope,  emperor, 
or  king  and,  therefore,  was  independent   (a)   of  local 
ecclesiastical  authority — the  bishop  or  the  abbot — and 
(b)   of  local  political  dominance — the  feudal  overlord. 

2.  Students  came  from  afar.    This  resulted  in  break- 
ing down,  for  higher  education,  local  or  provincial  ideas. 

100 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


3.  The  individual  teacher  or  -his   doctrine  was  the 
drawing  power,  not  simply  education  in  the  abstract. 

4.  The  university  was  for  comparatively  adult  stu- 
dents. 

5.  Each  student  took  what  he  wanted  instead  of  a 
fixed  course.     The  learning  offered  in  the  university 
was  rather  heterogeneous  and  not  so  well  organized  as 
in  the  schools. 

Organization  of  the  "University. — Students  came  from 
all  over  Europe  to  hear  distinguished  teachers,  and 
therefore  the  entire  body  of  students  was  known  as  the 
studium  generate.  Outside  the  place  of  lecture,  where 
all  the  students  met  in  common  to  hear  the  master  lec- 
ture in  Latin,  they  naturally  grouped  themselves  accord- 
ing to  their  place  of  origin,  and  such  groups  were  called 
the  ' '  nations. "  In  an  age  when  the  foreigner  was  looked 
upon  with  suspicion  and  usually  badly  treated  it  was 
essential  that  the  students  thus  group  themselves  for 
protection,  and  at  first  it  was  to  these  "nations"  that  the 
civil  or  ecclesiastical  authorities  granted  privileges.  In 
fact  the  students  imitated  the  gilds,  as  is  shown  by  the 
complete  name  of  their  body,  Universitas  Magistrorum 
et  Scholarium  (the  corporation  of  masters  and  scholars). 
The  term  universitas  meant  corporation  or  chartered 
company  and  was  applied  to  any  legal  association  that 
had  certain  privileges.  It  was  not  until  the  fourteenth 
century  that  the  term  was  restricted  to  the  one  kind  of 
corporation  that  devoted  itself  to  study.  The  real  gov- 
erning power  of  the  university  resided  in  the  * '  nations, ' ' 
each  of  which  chose  a  representative  every  year,  called  a 
councilor  or  procurator,  who  was  to  safeguard  its  rights 
and  control  the  conduct  of  its  members.  The  masters  did 
not  become  organized  into  the  groups  called  faculties 
until  later,  when  it  became  necessary  to  give  a  more 

101 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

systematic  organization  to  scholastic  procedure.  At  first 
the  term  facultas  meant  a  special  department  of  knowl- 
edge, e.  g.,  law,  medicine,  theology,  arts;  but  later  it 
was  applied  to  the  group  of  masters  who  taught  that 
special  department  of  knowledge.  Each  faculty  an- 
nually elected  a  dean,  and  these  deans  with  the  coun- 
cilors of  the  "nations"  formed  a  "university  council" 
which  annually  elected  the  rector,  the  official  head  of  the 
university.  The  rector,  however,  could  exercise  only 
the  powers  delegated  to  him.  In  the  South,  where  the 
majority  of  the  students  were  mature  and  were  study- 
ing  the  professional  subjects,  the  rector  was  for  a  long 
time  a  student,  and  the  "  nations "  remained  in  the  con- 
trol of  the  students.  In  the  North,  where  the  majority 
of  the  students  were  attending  the  arts  courses  and  were 
therefore  younger,  the  rector  was  a  master  and  the 
' '  nations ' '  much  sooner  lost  their  authority.  The  Church 
was  represented  in  the  university  organization  by  the 
chancellor  who,  however,  had  no  power  and  appeared 
only  at  the  public  conferring  of  the  degrees. 

Privileges  of  the  University. — Generally  speaking  the 
privileges  granted  to  the  masters  and  students  of  a 
university  were  the  privileges  of  the  clergy  which  had 
originally  belonged  to  the  teaching  class  under  the 
Roman  Empire.  They  were:  (1)  exemption  from  taxa- 
tion; (2)  exemption  from  military  service;  (3)  exemp- 
tion from  civil  jurisdiction,  i.  e.,  the  members  of  the 
university  could  be  tried  in  civil  and  criminal  case's 
only  by  their  own  officials ;  (4)  the  right  to  grant  the  de- 
gree, and  thereby  the  right  to  teach  anywhere  without 
further  examination;  (5)  the  right  to  suspend  lectures 
if  the  university  privileges  were  infringed.  If  the  latter 
wrong  were  not  at  once  redressed  the  university  might 
emigrate. 

102 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Effect  on  Student  Life. — The  privileges  of  the  univer- 
sity extended  not  only  to  the  masters  and  students,  but 
to  their  attendants  and  practically  everybody  employed 
in  the  university.  Hence  when  we  read  of  the  large 
numbers  of  students  that  attended  a  medieval  university 
due  allowance  must  be  made  for  this  fact.  The  posses- 
sion of  their  privileges,  especially  the  exemption  from 
civil  jurisdiction,  which  resulted  in  conflicts  between 
town  and  gown,  made  the  students  a  very  inde- 
pendent body  and  enabled  them  to  indulge  in  excesses 
which  in  course  of  time  compelled  monarchs  to  inter- 
vene and  restrict  their  privileges.  Moreover,  many  priv- 
ileges belonged  to  a  student  not  only  while  he  was  in 
residence  at  a  university  but  while  he  was  going  to 
and  from  it.  The  custom  grew  up  among  many  unam- 
bitious and  rollicking  students  of  wandering  from  uni- 
versity to  university,  begging  their  way  and  leading  any- 
thing but  an  exemplary  life.  These  vagantes  even 
formed  a  mock  gild  and  were  called  goliardi,  and 
have  handed  down  to  us  a  considerable  literature  of 
Latin  student  songs  voicing  their  love  of  the  reckless 
and  unrestrained  life  they  led.  They  became  so  numer- 
ous and  riotous  that  by  the  fifteenth  century  some  of 
the  towns  which  they  frequented  were  compelled  to  pass 
ordinances  for  their  supervision. 

Career  of  a  Student. — Apprenticeship  was  the  method 
by  which  a  man  in  the  Middle  Ages  normally  attained 
his  vocation.  The  squire  was  apprenticed  to  a  feudal 
lord,  the  would-be  artisan  to  a  master  in  a  gild.  So, 
when  the  young  student  went  to  a  university  at  about 
fourteen,  he  was  enrolled  under  a  master  who  was  re- 
sponsible for  his  studies.  Under  the  supervision  of  this 
master  he  pursued  his  arts  course  for  a  period  of  from 
four  to  seven  years,  until  he  could  "define  and  deter- 

103 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

mine"  terms,  which  in  reality  meant  to  be  efficient  in 
reading,  writing,  and  speaking  Latin.  When  he  was 
able  to  do  this  to  the  satisfaction  of  masters  other  than 
his  own,  he  became  a  baccalaureate,  i.  e.,  one  who  is 
beginning  his  candidacy  for  a  degree.  In  other  words 
the  baccalaureate  was  at  first  not  a  degree,  but  merely 
a  kind  of  matriculation  for  a  degree ;  in  course  of  time 
it  was  sought  as  an  honor  by  those  who  did  not  intend 
to  teach  and  it  became  a  degree.  When  the  student 
had  become  a  baccalaureate,  he  continued  his  studies 
under  the  supervision  of  a  master  and  in  turn  taught 
younger  boys  under  his  supervision.  But  he  might 
study  under  a  number  of  masters,  and  usually  did  so 
for  a  period  of  from  four  to  seven  years  until  he  was 
able  "to  dispute,"  i.  e;,  to  defend  a  thesis  in  public 
against  the  masters.  He  then  completed  his  apprentice- 
ship, like  the  journeymen  of  a  gild,  by  presenting  his 
1 '  masterpiece, ' '  his  thesis,  which,  if  successfully  defend- 
ed, entitled  him  to  the  degree  which  carried  with  it  the 
prize  of  university  scholarship,  i.  e.,  the  licentia  docendi, 
the  license  to  teach  anywhere.  Master,  doctor,  and  pro- 
fessor were  synonymous  terms  in  the  early  university 
period;  when  any  distinction  was  made  between  the 
master's  and  doctor's  degree  it  was  merely  in  the  man- 
ner of  acquiring  them.  The  master's  examination  was 
private  and  formal ;  the  doctor 's  took  place  immediately 
afterward  in  the  cathedral  into  which  crowded  all  the 
candidate's  friends  and  fellow  students,  where,  after 
publicly  defending  his  thesis,  he  was  invested  with  the 
degree  with  much  ceremony.  He  was  now  admitted  to 
the  gild  of  teachers  and  could  teach  in  competition  with 
all  the  other  masters. 

Content  of  Study. — Early  in  the  thirteenth  century 
the  course  of  study  had  become  thoroly  organized.    In 

104 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

the  arts  faculty  grammar  was  studied  from  Donatus  and 
Priscian.  The  works  of  Boethius  provided  the  major 
part  of  the  material  for  study  in  rhetoric  (which  re- 
ceivecl,  however,  very  little  attention),  dialectic,  arith- 
metic, and  music.  Euclid  was  studied  in  geometry,  and 
Ptolemy  in  astronomy.  Many  additional  texts  in  mathe- 
matics and  philosophy  were  obtained  from  the  Arabs. 
The  study  of  logic  overshadowed  all  others  and  Aristotle 
—whose  "Ethics,"  "Politics,"  " Physics,"  and  "Meta- 
physics" were  added  to  the  "Organon"  previously  pos- 
sessed by  the  schoolmen — was  the  master  whose  author- 
ity was  not  to  be  disputed.  In  the  faculty  of  theology,  to 
which  most  of  the  arts  students  afterwards  went,  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  was  given  to  Peter  the  Lom- 
bard's "Sententiae"  or  to  Thomas  Aquinas'  "Summa 
Theologiae."  In  the  faculty  of  law  the  course  was  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  civil  and  canon.  In  the  former  the 
"Corpus  Juris  Civilis"  was  the  authorized  text,  and  in 
the  latter  the  "Decretum"  of  Gratian.  In  the  faculty 
of  medicine  the  Greek  treatises  of  Hippocrates  -and  Ga- 
len, the  "Canon"  of  Avicenna,  and  some  of  the  medical 
works  of  the  Saracen,  Jewish,  and  Salernian  doctors  were 
the  chief  texts  studied.  The  authorized  texts  in  all  the 
professional  schools  were  accompanied  by  many  commen- 
taries. 

Methods  of  Study. — The  aim  of  teaching  in  a  medieval 
university  was  to  impart  a  knowledge  of  the  subject 
matter  and  an  ability  to  debate  about  it.  Because  of 
the  lack  of  manuscripts  the  lecture  method  was  used 
to  impart  the  subject  matter,  and  it  usually  took  the 
form  of  dictation.  The  training  in  'debate  was  given 
by  means  of  the  formal  disputation,  in  which  one  student 
or  group  of  students  was  opposed  to  another.  This  re- 
sulted in  the  development  of  keen  and  subtle  debaters; 

105 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

but  it  is  a  question  whether  the  disputation  and  the 
study  of  a  limited  number  of  texts  of  unquestioned  au- 
thority in  each  field  could  develop  free  and  profound 
thinking.  The  effect  of  the  scholastic  method,  which  was 
the  method  of  the  medieval  university,  has  been  discussed 
above,  under  scholasticism. 

Influence  of  the  Medieval  University. — The  influence 
of  scholasticism — which  has  also  been  considered — was 
one  of  the  chief  influences  of  the  medieval  university, 
wherein  scholasticism  found  lodgment.  But  there  were 
other  great  influences  resulting  from  the  existence  of  the 
universities.  The  gathering  together  of  hundreds  of 
young  men  from  all  over  Europe  had  a  most  beneficial 
effect  in  modifying  national  prejudices  among  them,  and 
when  they  returned  home  they  became  agents  for  the 
distribution  of  a  spirit  of  tolerance  as  well  as  of  learn- 
ing. Moreover,  the  university  symbolized  the  supremacy 
of  mind  over  brute  force.  Directly,  it  had  a  most  per- 
vasive influence  upon  education.  It  sent  out  large  num- 
bers of  well-equipped  teachers  at  a  time  when  they  were 
most  needed,  and  it  compelled  the  lower  schools  to  im- 
prove their  work  in  order  that  their  graduates  might 
enter  the  university.  The  self-governing  organization  of 
the  early  university  permitted  a  freedom  of  discussion  on 
many  problems,  political  and  theological,  which  enabled 
it  often  to  be  the  arbiter  in  controverted  questions  of 
church  and  state.  It  was  in  recognition  of  this  political 
influence  that  the  university  was  given  representation  in 
the  parliaments  of  France,  England,  and  Scotland.  In 
fact  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  university  that  was  most 
feared  by  rulers  in  church  and  state. 

The  Universities  and  the  Friars. — A  discussion  of  the 
medieval  universities  cannot  be  closed  without  a  brief 
consideration  of  the  remarkable  influence  exerted  upon 

106 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

them  by  the  new  orders  of  mendicant  friars,  the  Domini- 
cans and  the  Franciscans.  During  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries  there  had  been  an  increasing  decay 
in  the  Benedictine  monasteries  and  in  the  monastic 
schools  attached  to  them.  In  the  following  century  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  founded  his  order  of  gray  friars  (1212) 
and  St.  Dominic  his  order  of  black  friars  (1217),  to  go 
out  and  work  among  the  people,  living  on  charity, 
preaching  the  gospel,  and,  by  setting  an  example  of  piety 
and  self-sacrifice,  awakening  spirituality  among  the 
faithful.  The  fact  that  these  orders  were  primarily 
preaching  orders,  as  previous  orders  had  not  been,  would 
result  in  an  emphasis  upon  the  education,  first  of  their 
own  members  in  order  to  preach,  and  then  of  their 
auditors.  In  their  desire  to  spread  their  work  among 
all  classes  they  soon  saw  the  necessity  of  becoming  as- 
sociated with  the  newly  established  universities,  and  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  they  were  in 
control  of  higher  education.  All  the  great  schoolmen 
were  friars — Albertus  Magnus  and  his  great  pupil 
Thomas  Aquinas  were  Dominicans,  while  Duns  Scotus 
and  William  of  Occam  were  Franciscans.  At  first  they 
were  united  in  their  efforts,  but  soon  a  rivalry  sprang 
up  between  the  two  orders  and  each  sometimes  accused 
the  other  of  teaching  heretical  doctrines — a  healthful 
condition,  since  it  aroused  discussion  and  inquiry.  On 
the  whole  the  Dominicans  were  the  guardians  of 
orthodoxy,  the  Franciscans  the  initiators  of  new  move- 
ments in  philosophy  and  theology. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Education  upon  Monastic, 
Chivalric,  and  Moslem  Education,  Scholasticism,  the  Medieval 
Universities,  and  individual  schoolmen. 

107 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Catholic  Encyclopedia.     Similar  articles. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chapters  XIII-XX. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  II,  Chapters 
I-IX. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
V. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Edu- 
cation. Chap.  II. 

RASHDALL,  H.  The  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 

WEST,  A.  F.     Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  the  Christian  Schools. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

•     1.    Is  monasticism  peculiar  to  the  Christian  religion? 

2.  Does  the  pagan  or  the  early  Christian  attitude  towards 
the  body  conform  more  closely  to  that  of  education  today? 

3.  Compare  the  seven  liberal  arts  with  the  curriculum  of 
an  American  high  school. 

4.  Did  the  seven  liberal  arts  conform  to  the  modern  aim 
of  education  as  "adjustment  to  the  social   environment"? 

5.  Explain  why  learning  remained  vigorous  so  much  longer 
in  Ireland  than  on  the  Continent. 

6.  Compare  the  part  played  by  Charlemagne  in  the  revival 
of  learning  in  the  ninth  century  with  that  of  Horace  Mann  in 
the  public  school  revival  of  the  nineteenth. 

7.  Compare  the  work  of  the  Palace  School  with  that  of 
a  state  normal  school  today. 

8.  Compare  the  work  of  the  missi  dominici  of  Charlemagne 
with  that  of  a  county  or  district  superintendent  in  the  United 
States. 

9.  Compare  the  training  of  the  body  given  under  chivalry 
with  that  given  by  the  Greeks. 

10.  Compare  the  ideals  of  the  ephebic  oath  with  that  taken 
by  a  knight  on  the  day  he  was  knighted. 

108 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

11.  Why  did  not  the  remarkable  advance  in  science  made 
by  the  Saracens  in  Spain  have  a  greater  effect  upon  Christian 
Europe  ? 

12.  Does    the    work    of    Thomas    Aquinas    in    organizing 
knowledge  into  encyclopedic  form  resemble  in  any  way  the 
similar  work  of  Herbert  Spencer? 

13.  In  what  respect  as  to  origin  do  the  medieval  univer- 
sities, the  philosophical  schools  of  Athens,   and  the  schools 
of  the  Prophets  among  the  Jews  resemble  each  other? 

14.  Compare   the    gradual    growth    in    organization    of   a 
medieval   university   with    that    of   an   American    university, 
such  as  Columbia. 

15.  Is  the  " Wander jahr"   of  the   Germans  a  survival  of 
the  practice  of  the  wandering  students  of  the  Middle  Ages? 

16.  Is  the  preceptorial  system  at  Princeton  a  survival,  via 
Oxford,  of  the  system  of  apprenticing  students  to  masters  in 
the  medieval  university? 

17.  Compare  the  influence  of  the  medieval  university  upon 
public  opinion  with  that  of  the  university  in  Russia  today. 


PART   III 
THE   TRANSITION  PERIOD 

Characteristics :  The  emergence  of  the  individual  from 
institutional  control.  The  " humanities"  vs.  the  "di- 
vinities." The  rise  of  secular  interests  and  the  increas- 
ing demand  for  secular  control  of  education. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  RENAISSANCE 

Outline. — After  the  Crusades  European  society  gradually 
became  more  interested  in  secular  affairs.  There  resulted  the 
Renaissance,  the  revival  of  an  old,  long-forgotten  way  of  look- 
ing at  life,  i.e.,  the  pagan  view,  with  its  joyous,  self-reliant 
attitude  towards  present  as  against  future  life.  Hence 
attention  was  directed  to  the  literatures  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
which  were  termed  the  "humanities"  as  contrasted  with  the 
"divinities"  of  the  prevailing  education. 

The  Renaissance  first  developed  in  Italy  where  it  was  char- 
acterized by  its  appeal  to  the  esthetic  emotions.  The  movement 
was  greatly  accelerated  by  the  patronage  of  the  tyrants  of 
the  cities  who  established  court  schools,  the  finest  of  which 
was  that  of  Vittorino  da  Feltre  at  Mantua. 

The  way  for  the  Renaissance  in  the  North  had  been  pre- 
pared by  the  fine  work  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life 
who  were  interested  in  social  as  well  as  educational  reform. 
The  movement  in  Teutonic  countries  took  on  a  reform  aspect, 
as  illustrated  in  Erasmus,  and  gave  much  attention  to  Chris- 
tian literature. 

Both  in  the  North  and  the  South,  the  early  Renaissance 
movement,  characterized  by  an  enthusiasm  for  the  classical 
literatures,  degenerated  into  a  fixed  and  formal  study  of  the 
structure  and  style  of  the  classical  languages.  This  was 
known  as  Ciceronianism  and  was  best  typified  by  Johann 
Sturm  who  standardized  the  work  of  the  German  gymnasium. 

The  Passing  of  the  Middle  Ages.— The  thirteenth  cen- 
tury was  the  heyday  of  the  medieval  period.  The  unity 

113 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  life  and  of  ideas — political,  religious,  and  intellectua 
— and  the  dominance  of  authority,  which  characterize< 
it,  began  to  give  way  in  the  fourteenth  century,  as  th 
result  of  the  new  forces  which  were  springing  into  life 
The  necessity  of  transporting  thousands  of  crusader 
and  their  equipment  had  resulted  in  the  revival  of  sea 
ports  and  cities.  The  burgher  class  which  thus  arose 
composed  of  the  merchants  and  the  masters  of  the  gilds 
f6rmed  a  caste  distinct  from  nobles,  clergy,  and  serfs 
into  which  medieval  society  had  been  divided.  The  need 
of  this  new  class  were  different  from  those  of  the  othe: 
classes,  and  this  fact  was  reflected  in  their  education.  L 
the  later  Middle  Ages  there  arose  gild  schools,  which  usu 
ally  gave  elementary  instruction  in  the  vernacular  as  < 
foundation  for  the  industrial  education  received  by  th 
apprentices  in  the  gilds  themselves.  Chantry  schools 
founded  upon  bequests  left  by  wealthy  patrons  to  sup 
port  priests  who  were  to  chant  masses  for  the  repose  o 
the  souls  of  these  patrons,  also  increased  in  number  i] 
the  later  Middle  Ages.  As  these  priests  had  much  un 
occupied  time,  they  were  expected  to  give  instruction  t 
the  children  of  the  neighborhood,  and  sometimes,  thru  ; 
union  of  chantry  foundations,  strong  schools  of  larg 
size  flourished  in  the  big  towns.  As  the  result  of  th 
growth  in  numbers  and  influence  of  the  burgher  clas 
and  of  their  acquiring  control  of  the  government  of  th 
cities,  these  various  kinds  of  schools  were  often  unite< 
into  burgher  schools.  Tho  these  schools  were  usually  un 
der  religious  influences,  the  teachers  were  generally  sec 
ular  priests,  not  monks,  and  the  number  of  lay  teacher 
gradually  increased.  Moreover,  the  burgher  schools  wer 
supported  and  often  controlled  by  the  public  authoritie 
and  gave  instruction  in  subjects  of  a  more  practical  na 
ture  than  had  hitherto  been  the  case.  As  a  result  of  th 

114 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

rapid  establishment  of  these  various  kinds  of  schools  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  it  can  justly  he 
stated  that  quite  generous  provision  was  made  for  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  education. 

Nature  of  the  Renaissance. — The  crusaders  had  dis- 
covered that  the  people  of  the  East  were  not  only  more 
intelligent,  but  also  they  lived  better  and  had  better 
things  to  eat  and  to  wear.  As  a  result  of  the  contact 
there  grew  up  a  demand  for  the  products  of  the  East 
which  caused  not  only  a  growth  of  commerce  but  a  taste 
for  the  good  things  of  this  life.  In  fact  men  became 
interested  more  and  more  in  the  life  of  the  present  world. 
The  joy  of  living,  the  interest  in  the  beauties  and  won- 
ders of  nature,  the  wish  to  know  more  of  man's  social 
relations,  of  his  real  desires,  ambitions,  and  duties  grew 
with  every  year.  The  life  of  the  monk  became  relatively 
less  valued.  "Otherworldliness"  began  to  give  way  to 
the  interests  of  this  world.  That  was  the  first  char- 
acteristic of  the  Renaissance.  It  was  a  rebirth,  indeed, 
a  revival  of  an  old  long-forgotten  way  of  looking  at  life, 
the  ante-Christian  way.  Where  was  a  knowledge  of 
things  human  as  against  things  divine  to  be  found? 
Surely  not  in  the  literature  of  the  past  thousand  years. 
That  was  devoted  to  the  other  world;  to  divinity,  not 
humanity.  In  the  ancient  literatures  of  Greece  and 
Rome  humanity  and  the  things  that  interest  and  con- 
cern humanity  in  this  life  were  discussed.  Hence  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  classical  literature.  From  this 
source  have  arisen  the  terms  humanities,  humanism,  and* 
humanists,  which  have  become  associated  with  this  move,- 
ment.  With  the  revival  of  the  classical  models,  how- 
ever, the  humanists  slowly  developed  national  litera- 
tures of  poetry,  drama,  and  romance,  which  eventually 
rivaled  the  models.  A  second  characteristic  of  the 

115 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Renaissance  was  the  emphasis  upon  individuality.  IE 
the  Middle  Ages  the  individual  counted  for  nothing.  He 
had  no  rights  except  as  a  member  of  a  group  or  institu- 
tion, such  as  the  gild,  the  university,  or  the  monastic 
order.  During  the  Renaissance  the  old  Athenian  em- 
phasis upon  personal  worth  and  excellence  was  revived 
The  opportunity  for  personal  self-realization  as  against 
rigid  institutional  control  was  demanded  and  realized 

The  Invention  of  Printing. — Fortunately,  when  the 
Renaissance  movement  had  become  well  established 
printing  was  invented  (c.  1450) .  This  gave  a  very  great 
impetus  to  the  spread  of  the  so-called  ' '  New  Learning. ' 
The  multiplication  of  books  resulted  in  the  lowering  oJ 
their  price  to  one-fifth  of  what  it  had  been  and  brought 
them  within  the  means  of  multitudes  who  had  been 
without  them.  A  perfect  mania  for  ancient  manuscripts 
spread  thruout  Europe.  Monastery  and  castle  were 
ransacked  to  find  them,  and  then  they  were  immediately 
reproduced  upon  the  printing  presses.  As  a  result 
libraries  arose  in  many  of  the  large  cities,  e.  g.,  the  cele- 
brated Vatican  library  at  Rome.  These  increased  facili- 
ties for  learning  led  naturally  to  a  comparative  study 
of  accepted  authorities,  and  the  historical  criticism  whict 
resulted  was  very  destructive  to  accepted  belief  in  all 
domains  of  thought. 

The  Scientific  Discoveries. — This  result  was  accen 
tuated  by  the  scientific  discoveries  resulting  from  the 
spirit  of  investigation  which  had  been  aroused.  The  ex- 
plorers showed  that  the  earth  was  round  and  not  flat 
Copernicus  demonstrated  a  little  later  that  the  sun,  not 
the  earth,  was  the  center  of  our  system.  Authority  hac 
been  mistaken  upon  these  things;  might  it  not  be  mis- 
taken upon  others  ?  The  old  unity  of  life  and  ideals 
could  not  stand  the  onslaughts  of  skeptical  criticism 

116 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

Men  rejected  the  authority  of  abstract  conceptions  and 
demanded  proofs  of  a  concrete  and  real  nature.  These 
tendencies  did  not  dominate  at  first,  but  they  were  ap- 
parent from  the  beginning.  The  mistake  is  sometimes 
made  in  textbooks  of  associating  the  Renaissance  in  time 
with  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  1453.  Tho  the  move- 
ment was  greatly  accelerated  by  that  event  which  pro- 
vided western  Europe  with  a  literature  of  far  greater 
value  and  beauty  than  the  Latin,  nevertheless  the  Latin 
revival  was  in  full  swing  before  that  event  happened. 
Petrarch  (1304-1374),  who  is  usually  referred  to  as  "the 
first  modern  man, ' '  and  who  was  the  embodiment  of  the 
early  Renaissance,  died  eighty  years  before  the  fall  of 
Constantinople.  By  that  time  the  spirit  of  modern  times 
was  not  only  ushered  in  but  was  in  process  of  gaining 
control. 

A.     THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  ITALY 

To  no  country  had  the  Crusades  been  of  so  much  bene- 
fit as  to  the  cities  of  Italy.  The  commerce  that  had  re- 
sulted made  them  rich  and  intelligent.  Tho  suffrage  was 
restricted  they  were  nevertheless  democracies,  and  po- 
litical activity  made  them  keen  and  wide-awake.  In. 
Italy,  moreover,  the  classical  literatures  had  never  en- 
tirely disappeared,  tho  there  had  been  little  apprecia- 
tion of  their  beauty  or  content.  Now  a  mania  for  every- 
thing that  had  to  do  with  the  Greco-Roman  period  swept 
thruout  society.  The  revulsion  against  the  ' '  otherworld- 
liness"  of  the  medieval  period  became  so  pronounced  as 
to  cause  a  reversion  to  paganism  in  many  adherents  of 
the  New  Learning.  The  greatest  admiration  for  the 
Greek  view  of  life  prevailed,  and  devotion  to  the  classical 
literature  and  delight  in  its  esthetic  appeal  were  char- 
acteristic of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy.  It  was  essentially 

117 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

an  individual  and  personal  matter.  Men  studied  the 
classical  literature  devotedly  for  the  personal  pleasure 
it  gave  them,  not  in  order  that  they  should  thereby  be 
better  enabled  to  improve  society.  Hence  it  was  an 
aristocratic  movement.  The  movement,  moreover,  went 
thru  several  stages.  The  early  period  was  marked 
by  the  revolt  against  tradition  and  authority,  and  an 
emphasis  upon  individualism  in  all  its  phases.  As  the 
number  of  scholars  familiar  with  the  New  Learning  in- 
creased, it  gradually  became  organized  for  purposes  of 
instruction.  Unfortunately  with  organization  it  became 
more  and  more  formal  and  devitalized  until,  by  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  had  degenerated  into 
the  inconceivably  narrow  educational  system  known  as 
Ciceronianism. 

Petrarch  (1304-1374)  was  the  very  embodiment  of  the 
early  Renaissance  spirit.  No  one  attacked  tradition  so 
boldly  or  satirized  the  scholastic  work  of  the  schools  and 
universities  so  successfully.  He  had  a  marked  fourfold 
influence  in  spreading  the  New  Learning.  FirsJ;,  he  de- 
voted himself  during  his  extensive  travels  to  collecting 
manuscripts  of  the  old  Latin  writers,  which  he  caused 
to  be  copied  and  widely  distributed;  secondly,  in  his 
numerous  letters  he  tried  successfully  to  inspire  every 
friend  with  a  love  of  the  New  Learning;  thirdly,  he 
wrote  a  number  of  Latin  works — including  his  * '  Letters 
to  Famous  Men,"  addressed  to  the  ancient  worthies  such 
as  Homer,  Virgil  and  Cicero — which  had  a  great  effect 
upon  his  day,  tho  they  were  soon  superseded.  Finally, 
in  his  condemnation  of  scholastic  and  patristic  writings, 
he  delivered  the  final  great  blow  to  the  master,  Aristotle. 
"I  am  confident,"  he  writes,  "that  he  was  in  error  all 
his  life."  For  Aristotle  he  substituted  Cicero.  It  is  his 
sonnets,  however,  which  were  written  in  the  vernacular, 

118 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

that  give  him  his  place  in  the  history  of  modern  litera- 
ture. 

The  Recovery  of  the  Greek  Heritage. — Petrarch  and 
his  contemporaries  for  the  most  part  knew  no  Greek,  hut 
toward  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  Greek  scholars 
came  to  Italy  to  teach.  The  greatest  of  these  was  Manuel 
Chrysoloras  (1350-1415).  He  had  been  sent  in  1393  hy 
the  Byzantine  emperor  to  secure  aid  against  the  Turks 
and  was  urged  to  stay  in  Italy.  Later  he  returned  and 
started  schools  for  instruction  in  Greek  in  the  principal 
cities  of  northern  Italy.  Moreover,  he  made  translations 
of  some  of  the  Greek  authors,  and  wrote  a  work  on  Greek 
grammar  which  became  the  standard  in  Italy.  Among 
his  pupils  were  some  of  the  most  renowned  scholars  of 
the  succeeding  generation,  who  did  great  service  in 
spreading  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language  and  litera- 
ture thruout  Europe. 

Vittorino  da  Feltre  (1378-1446).— One  of  the  most 
potent  influences  in  the  spread  of  the  New  Learning  was 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  tyrants  who  held  control 
of  the  governments  of  the  Italian  cities  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Desirous  of  making  some  return  to  the  people 
for  the  latter 's  loss  of  political  power,  they  vied  with  each 
other  in  making  their  cities  illustrious  as  centers  of  the 
New  Learning  by  the  collection  of  manuscripts,  the  es- 
tablishment of  libraries,  the  support  of  distinguished 
scholars,  and  the  founding  of  new  schools.  The  new 
schools  were  necessary  because  the  existing  schools  and 
the  universities  were  at  first  strongly  antagonistic  to  the 
New  Learning.  The  most  important  of  these  schools  was 
that  which  was  founded  by  the  Prince  of  Mantua  and 
placed  under  the  control  of  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  one  of 
the  most  scholarly  men  of  this  time,  who  was  thoroly  im- 
bued with  the  New  Learning. 

119 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Court  School. — The  court  school  aimed  primarily 
to  train  the  young  nobles  of  the  court  for  political  and 
social  life,  but  Da  Feltre  invited  to  his  school  the  sons 
of  friends  and  neighbors  and  even  children  of  the  poor. 
The  organization  of  the  school  was  much  influenced  by 
Athenian  ideals ;  hence  we  find  that  physical  training  re- 
ceived great  attention,  in  the  form  of  swimming,  fencing, 
boxing,  riding,  and  dancing.  Emphasis  was  placed  also 
upon  deportment  and  manners,  and  they  were  developed 
under  strong  moral  and  religious  influences,  for  Da  Fel- 
tre was  a  devout  Christian.  However,  it  was  the  litera- 
tures of  Greece  and  Rome  that  received  most  attention, 
and  they  were  taught  for  an  appreciation  of  their  beauty 
as  well  as  for  the  knowledge  they  gave  of  the  institutions 
and  ideals  of  the  classical  peoples.  In  his  work  Da 
Feltre  realized  some  of  the  finest  principles  of  modern 
education.  He  adapted  the  training  of  each  individual  to 
his  particular  needs  and  capacities,  thereby  arousing  in- 
terest in  the  studies  and  eliminating  the  harsh  discipline 
so  prevalent  in  his  day.  Da  Feltre  had  a  profound  in- 
fluence upon  his  own  time.  It  was  only  after  his  death 
that  the  narrow  and  formal  training  known  as  Cicer- 
onianism  gained  control.  As  this  decay  characterized  the 
whole  later  Renaissance  movement,  we  shall  study  it  after 
considering  the  Renaissance  in  the  North. 

B.     THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  NORTHERN  EUROPE 

The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life. — While  the  Renais- 
sance was  taking  place  in  Italy,  an  educational  move- 
ment of  deep  significance  was  making  headway  in  the 
North.  In  1376  there  was  established  at  Deventer,  Hol- 
land, an  organization  of  pious  and  social-minded 
men  called  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  or  the 

120 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

Hieronymians.  Tho  the  members  lived  in  communities,, 
they  were  not  bound  by  religious  vows  or  rules  and  could 
leave  the  organization  at  will.  They  supported  them- 
selves chiefly  by  copying  manuscripts.  Their  aim  was 
to  combat  the  ignorance  of  the  lower  classes  and  to  in- 
spire in  them,  thru  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  a 
higher  ideal  than  that  of  mere  physical  existence.  Their 
purpose  at  first,  therefore,  was  chiefly  religious  and  their 
purely  educational  work  was  confined  to  helping  poor 
scholars  at  the  various  schools  to  maintain  themselves. 
They  soon  undertook  to  teach  backward  students  so  as  to 
enable  them  to  benefit  by  the  school  work.  In  this  they 
were  very  successful,  owing  to  their  willingness  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  students  and  their  disdain  of  the  rigid 
and  formal  methods  of  the  established  schools.  Their 
success  attracted  attention  and  they  were  invited  to  take 
charge  of  existing  schools  and  to  open  new  ones.  They 
broadened  the  content  of  study  and  improved  the 
methods  of  teaching.  In  a  comparatively  short  time 
they  spread  over  a  large  part  of  northern  France,  Ger- 
many, and  the  Netherlands,  founding  numerous  schools 
which  outshone  those  already  in  existence.  Wandering 
scholars  from  Italy  bringing  the  treasures  of  the  New 
Learning  with  them  were  received  with  enthusiasm  by 
the  Brethren  and  soon  their  schools  became  the  centers 
from  which  the  new  education  radiated.  Many  of  them 
went  to  study  in  Italy  and  returned  to  give  instruction 
in  the  New  Learning  in  their  schools.  For  example,  Ru- 
dolphus  Agricola  was  very  successful  in  inspiring  a  love 
of  the  classics,  and  Johann  Reuchlin  virtually  gave 
Hebrew  the  standing  of  a  third  classic.  The  way  for  the 
Renaissance  in  the  North  was  well  prepared,  therefore, 
by  the  Brethren,  and  the  two  aspects  which  it  assumed  in 
the  North,  the  pious  and  the  educational,  were  incarnated 

121 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  the  life  and  works  respectively  of  Thomas  a  Kempis 
and  Erasmus,  two  of  their  most  distinguished  prod- 
ucts. The  introduction  of  printing  deprived  the  Breth- 
ren of  their  chief  means  of  support,  and  the  competi- 
tion of  the  Jesuits  and  the  religious  troubles  of  the  six- 
teenth century  drove  them  out  of  the  educational 
field. 

The  New  Learning  in  France. — It  has  already  been 
mentioned  that  wandering  scholars  from  Italy  carried 
the  New  Learning  with  them  to  the  northern  countries 
of  Europe.  An  even  greater  result  followed  the  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  French  king,  Charles  VIII,  to  con- 
quer northern  Italy.  In  this  he  failed,  but  he  and  his 
nobles  were  brought  into  contact  with  the  new  culture 
of  northern  Italy  and  they  invited  scholars  to  return 
with  them  to  France.  The  result  was  that  the  New 
Learning  made  a  rapid  conquest  in  France  and  institu- 
tions so  far  removed  as  the  College  de  Guyenne  at  Bor- 
deaux and  the  College  de  France  at  Paris,  founded  by 
Francis  I  (1515-1547),  became  centers  of  great  influence. 
For  a  generation,  in  fact,  Paris  was  the  chief  center  of 
the  New  Learning  in  the  North  and  from  it,  largely 
thru  the  work  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  it 
was  carried  into  the  Teutonic  countries. 

Characteristics  of  the  Renaissance  in  Teutonic  Coun- 
tries.— In  the  Teutonic  countries  the  Renaissance  as- 
sumed a  different  character.  The  appeal  to  the  esthetic 
feelings  was  not  so  emphatic  as  in  Italy.  The  New  Learn- 
ing was  valued  not  only  as  a  source  of  individual  happi- 
ness, of  personal  self-culture,  but  as  an  instrument  of 
social  reform.  Hence  not  only  the  pagan  literature  of 
the  ancients,  but  also  the  works  of  the  Church  Fathers 
had  a  place  in  the  new  education.  The  interpretation  of 
the  Old  Testament  for  purposes  of  moral  and  religious 

122 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

reform  required  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew,  and  this 
followed  quickly  in  the  wake  of  Greek.  The  move- 
ment in  the  North  assumed  far  more  the  nature  of  a 
crusade  against  ignorance  as  the  mother  of  all 
social  evils  than  in  the  South,  and  was  necessarily 
more  democratic  in  its  appeal.  As  the  Church  was  the 
dominant  institution  of  the  times,  it  was  naturally 
blamed  for  the  ignorance,  greed,  and  corruption  that 
prevailed.  The  emphasis  upon  individual  freedom  as 
against  institutional  control  that  characterized  the  whole 
Renaissance  movement  took  on  in  the  North  the  char- 
acter of  a  revolt  against  authority  in  religion,  and  the 
Renaissance  was  the  parent  of  the  Reformation. 

Erasmus  (1467-1536). — Erasmus  was  the  incarnation 
of  the  Renaissance  in  the  North  and  represents  the  union 
of  the  biblical  and  classical  elements  in  the  New  Learn- 
ing. He  had  received  his  early  education  from  the 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  at  Deventer,  but  deepened 
his  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek  literature  at  Paris,  at 
Oxford,  and  in  Italy.  He  spent  many  years  of  his  life 
as  an  itinerant  scholar,  in  universities  in  England, 
France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  and  he  was  everywhere 
received  with  acclaim.  He  exercised  an  influence  upon 
his  day  with  which  only  that  of  Darwin  upon  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  comparable.  This  influence  he  used 
during  his  long  scholastic  career  to  fight  ignorance  and 
hypocrisy  everywhere,  but  especially  among  the  monks. 
Nevertheless  he  expected  reform  to  come  as  the  result  of 
a  campaign  of  education  and  was  opposed  to  the  rup- 
ture with  the  Church  made  by  Luther,  though  the  latter 
maintained  that  he  was  merely  realizing  the  teachings  of 
Erasmus. 

Influence  of  Erasmus. — Erasmus*  influence  was  exer- 
cised in  several  ways:  (1)  in  his  teaching  in  the  uni- 

123 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

versities;  (2)  in  his  vast  correspondence  with  scholars 
everywhere;  and  (3)  in  the  numerous  books  that  he 
wrote.  His  written  works,  which  are  all  in  the  Latin 
language,  fall  into  two  general  classes:  religious  and 
educational.  In  order  to  provide  men  with  an  ac- 
curate knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  Church 
Fathers,  he  published  first  an  edition  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  Greek  and  later  a  translation  into  Latin,  and  also 
edited  the  works  of  St.  Jerome  and  some  of  the  Greek 
Fathers.  Even  his  educational  writings  were  intended 
for  reform  purposes,  and  some  of  them  were  satires. 
His  "Colloquies,"  which  was  used  as  a  textbook  in  the 
new  schools  that  were  arising,  consisted  in  part  of  dia- 
logues that  satirized  social  evils  existing.  His  "Praise 
of  Folly "  was  a  satire  directed  against  the  corrupt  prac- 
tices that  prevailed  among  the  monks.  "The  Cicero- 
nians"-was  another  satire  upon  the  narrow  humanists 
who  were  already  restricting  the  New  Learning  to  a 
formal  study  of  Cicero  and  his  works. 

Not  all  his  educational  works  were  satires,  however. 
In  his  "Liberal  Education  of  Children,"  and  "On  the 
Order  of  Study, ' '  Erasmus  makes  admirable  suggestions 
in  regard  to  the  education  of  children.  The  importance 
of  studying  the  character  of  the  child,  the  place  of  play 
and  games,  the  opposition  to  brutal  discipline,  the 
methods  of  teaching  grammar  and  literature,  all  receive 
careful  and  wise  consideration.  The  importance  of 
keeping  education  in  vital  association  with  the  needs  of 
society  and  of  securing  the  necessary  knowledge  to  that 
end  by  the  study  of  a  large  number  of  classical  authors 
was  strongly  urged  by  Erasmus.  Finally  he  was  one 
of  those  who  believed  that  women  should  have  the  same 
educational  advantages  as  men.  His  fine  influence  upon 
the  content  and  method  of  teaching  prevailed  thru- 

124 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

out  Europe  and  was  reflected  for  a  long  time  in  the 
works  put  forth  by  scholars  in  every  country. 

The  German  Gymnasium. — An  educational  movement 
of  such  extent  and  influence  as  the  Renaissance  in  the 
North  would  inevitably  become  organized  into  an  in- 
stitution. In  fact  schools  of  various  kinds  arose  at  first 
in  Teutonic  countries  before  they  became  standardized  in 
the  Gymnasium.  Of  the  other  schools  the  most  important 
were  the  Furstenschulen  (princes'  schools)  modeled 
upon  the  court  schools  of  Italy  and  intended  to  educate 
leaders  in  church  and  state.  They  in  turn  were  merged 
in  the  Gymnasium  system,  which  became  the  very  core 
of  the  educational  organization  of  Teutonic  countries  and  — 
has  remained  so  to  this  day.  With  organization  the 
spirit  of  the  Renaissance  movement  underwent  a  great 
change.  The  early  Renaissance  scholars  were  enthusi- 
astic over  the  classical  literatures  chiefly  because  of  the 
value  and  beauty  of  the  content.  The  Latin  and  Greek 
languages  were  to  be  studied  as  a  means  to  an  end.  But 
with  the  necessity  of  organizing  school  classes  and  of 
grading  subject  matter  in  difficulty,  an  undue  emphasis 
was  placed  upon  the  linguistic  side  of  the  classics,  which 
resulted  in  a  formalizing  of  school  work ;  and  had  a  very 
deadening  influence  upon  education.  Lists  of  Latin 
words  and  phrases,  a  careful  study  of  the  intricacies  of 
grammar,  syntax,  and  prosody  became  the  first  burden 
of  the  pupil.  The  boy  entered  the  Gymnasium  at  about 
nine  years  of  age  without  a  knowledge  of  the  vernacular 
grammar  and  was  at  once  plunged  into  a  study  of  the 
grammar  of  a  foreign  language,  and,  what  is  more,  a 
grammar  written  in  that  language.  The  resulting  bur- 
den upon  the  memory  is  evident,  and  learning  by  heart, 
of  necessity,  became  the  chief  method  of  study.  Instead 
of  the  wide  range  of  classical  authors  recommended  by 

125 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  early  humanists,  the  work  of  the  Gymnasium,  was 
confined  to  the  thoro  study  of  a  few.  In  fact  in  some 
places  the  aim  of  education  was  to  develop  in  the  indi- 
vidual the  ability  to  read,  write,  and  speak  Latin  with 
Cicero  as  a  model.  A  fine  style,  a  correct  form  of  ex- 
pression, was  the  desideratum,  and  by  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  old  scholasticism  with  Aristotle  as 
master  and  dialectics  as  content  had  given  way  before 
a  no  less  narrow  scholasticism  with  Cicero  as  master  and 
linguistics  as  content.  To  treat  the  child  mind  as  an 
adult  mind,  to  organize  grammar  in  the  purely  logical 
manner  fit  for  the  latter,  meant  to  kill  interest  in 
study  and  to  enforce  discipline  by  harsh  measures.  This 
system  prevailed  thruout  Europe  in  the  Protestant 
Gymnasium  and  in  the  Jesuit  college  during  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  and  made  a  dreary 
period,  indeed,  in  the  history  of  education. 

Johann  Sturm  (1507-1589). — The  Gymnasium  in  most 
cases  was  not  a  boarding  school,  but  a  pay  school  organ- 
ized under  municipal  control.  It  developed  independ- 
ently in  a  number  of  places,  but  the  Gymnasium  founded 
by  Johann  Sturm  at  Strassburg  in  1537  is  typical. 
Sturm  was  one  of  the  narrow  humanists  who  did  more 
than  any  other  individual  to  standardize  the  work  of 
the  new  school.  He  had  a  great  influence  thruout  Ger- 
many as  the  result  of  the  publication  of  his  textbooks 
and  the  training  of  teachers  in  his  Gymnasium,  and  his 
advice  was  frequently  sought  by  princes  and  cities  in  the 
organization  of  institutions.  His  school  was  attended  by 
large  numbers  of  students,  many  of  them  nobles,  and 
became  a  model  that  was  freely  imitated.  It  was  organ- 
ized into  ten  classes — the  Gymnasium  was  afterwards  re- 
duced to  nine — and  attention  was  devoted  almost  exclu- 
sively to  Latin  and  Greek.  The  vernacular  was  wholly 

126 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

neglected  as  was  also  physical  training ;  no  mathematics 
or  natural  science  found  a  place  in  the  curriculum  and 
no  attempt  was  made  to  relate  the  school  to  the  social 
needs  of  the  time.  Emphasis  was  laid  upon  the  life  of  a 
past  era  with  the  difference  that  formalism  had  killed  the 
esthetic  spirit  which  had  characterized  that  life. 

The  Renaissance  in  England. — The  New  Learning  had 
been  received  with  enthusiasm  in  England.  Some  fine 
English  scholars  visited  Italy  to  study  Greek,  and  upon 
their  return  brought  with  them  other  distinguished 
scholars,  like  Erasmus,  who  was  the  first  professor  of 
Greek  at  Cambridge.  The  court  of  Henry  VIII  was 
strongly  affected  by  the  movement  and  humanism  re- 
ceived powerful  support  from  Sir  Thomas  More  and 
Cardinal  Wolsey. 

Roger  Ascham. — One  result  of  the  movement  in  Eng- 
land was  the  educational  treatise  of  Roger  Ascham,  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  at  Cambridge  and  tutor  in  the  classics  to 
Queen  Elizabeth.  This  book,  called  "The  Scholemas- 
ter, ' '  gives  the  typical  humanistic  view  of  education,  but 
condemns  some  of  the  practices  prevailing  in  the  schools, 
such  as  brutal  corporal  punishment.  It  is  chiefly  de- 
voted to  a  description  of  the  best  method  of  teaching 
Latin  and  Greek.  Ascham 's  method  was  an  improve- 
ment upon  the  one  prevailing  in  English  schools,  its 
chief  characteristic  being  the  "double  translation/' 
The  pupil  was  required  to  translate  a  passage  into  Eng- 
lish and  then  an  hour  later  to  retranslate  it  into  the 
original".  The  master  then  compared  it  with  the  text. 
Ascham 's  book  had  practically  no  influence  upon  the 
schools  either  in  discipline  or  methods  of  teaching. 

John  Colet. — One  of  the  most  influential  of  the  human- 
ists in  England  was  John  Colet,  dean  of  St.  Paul's.  In 
1509  he  founded,  upon  a  humanistic  basis,  St.  Paul's 

127 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

School,  which  was  typical  of  the  best  results  of  the 
Renaissance  in  the  North,  emphasizing  religion  and  the 
classics  in  its  curriculum.  Colet  had  hoped  to  secure 
Erasmus  as  its  first  headmaster;  but  Erasmus  recom- 
mended William  Lilly,  who  later  wrote  a  Latin  grammar 
that  was  used  in  England  well  into  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Some  of  the  aristocratic  private  schools  of  Eng- 
land— known  as  "public  schools "  because  independent 
of  both  Church  and  state — and  many  of  the  grammar 
schools  which  survived  the  Reformation,  as  well  as  many 
new  foundations,  were  modeled  upon  St.  Paul 's.  But  by 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  work  of 
these  humanistic  schools  had  become  more  narrow  and 
formal  than  that  of  the  Gymnasium  in  Germany  and  they 
remained  divorced  from  the  affairs  of  practical  life  until 
the  investigation  of  the  Royal  Commission  of  1864.  More- 
over, when  the  colonists  left  England  to  settle  in  Amer- 
ica, they  naturally  brought  with  them  the  educational 
institution  with  which  they  were  familiar.  We  find  a 
Latin  grammar  school  in  Boston  as  early  as  1635  and 
similar  secondary  schools  spread  thruout  the  colonies. 
Like  their  prototypes  in  England  they  gave  an  educa- 
tion in  the  classics  and  the  New  Testament  in  prepara- 
tion for  the  college  course  which  was  to  train  their  stu- 
dents, in  the  northern  colonies  at  least,  for  the  ministry. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  the  Renaissance, 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  the  Gymnasium,  the  Court 
School,  Ciceronianism,  and  individual  educators  like  Da  Feltre, 
Erasmus,  Colet,  Ascham,  etc. 

Catholic  Encyclopedia.     Similar  articles. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chaps.  XXI-XXII. 

128 


THE  RENAISSANCE 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  II,  Chaps. 
XII-XIV. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
VI. 

QUICK,  E.  H.     Educational  Reformers.     Chaps.  I-III. 

RUSSELL,  J.  E.     German  Higher  Schools.    Chap.  II. 

WOODWARD,  W.  H.    Education  During  the  Renaissance. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Compare  the  influence  of  the  Sophists  in  Greece  with 
that    of   the   wandering   humanistic    scholars    from   Italy   in 
northern  Europe. 

2.  Compare  the  influence  upon  intellectual  life  made  by 
the  Revival  of  Learning  in  the  fifteenth  century  with  that 
made  by  the  scientific  discoveries  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

3.  Compare  the  absorption  of  Hellenic  civilization  by  the 
Romans  with  the  absorption  of  Greco-Roman  civilization  by 
western  Europe  in  the  Renaissance. 

4.  Compare  the  school  of  Isocrates  at  Athens  in  390  B.C. 
with  that  of  Vittorino  da  Feltre  at  Mantua  A.D.  1440. 

5.  In   what   respect   can    Erasmus   and   other   humanistic 
students  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  Church  Fathers  be  considered 
the  forerunners  of  the  higher  criticism  of  today? 

6.  To  what  extent  can  the  Renaissance  in  Italy  be  con- 
sidered a  patriotic  revival? 

7.  What    reasons    can    be    adduced    to    explain    why    the 
Renaissance  movement  in  the  North  should  have  been  char- 
acterized by  a  reform  aspect  so  much  more  than  in  Italy? 

8.  Point  out  the  resemblances  and  differences  between  the 
Renaissance  movement  in  northern  Europe  and  the  movement 
for  social  reform  in  the  United  States  at  the  present  time. 

9.  Compare  the  views  of  Erasmus  with  those  of  Quintilian 
on  the  early  education  of  children. 

10.  What  elements  of  his  curriculum  did  Da  Feltre  borrow 
from  the  Greeks?    From  the  knights?    From  the  Church? 

129 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

11.  Compare   the  influence  of  the  sojourn   of   American 
students  at  German  universities  today  upon  culture  and  edu- 
cation in  the  United  States  with  the  influence  of  the  sojourn 
of    English    students    at    Italian    schools    during    the    early 
Renaissance  upon  English  culture  and  education. 

12.  Compare  the  attitude  of  the  Church  towards  the  New 
Learning  in  the  fifteenth  century  with  the  attitude  today  of 
the  Church  (Protestant  and  Catholic)  towards  such  biological 
theories  as   evolution. 

13.  Is  there  much  likelihood  that  vocational  subjects  will 
drive  the  humanistic  subjects  out  of  education  today  as  the 
humanities    drove    the    divinities    out    of    education    in    the 
Renaissance? 


CHAPTER  IX 
RELIGIOUS  FOEMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

Outline. — The  Reformation  emphasis  upon  a  knowledge  of 
the  Bible  as  necessary  to  eternal  salvation  had  as  an  educa- 
tional corollary  an  ability  at  least  to  read  it,  and  this  was  a 
stimulus  toward  universal  elementary  education.  To  secure 
that  end  Luther  in  his  letters  and  sermons  advocated  state- 
supported  schools,  which  should  have  new  elements  in  their 
work. 

Melanchthon  aimed  to  make  the  Reformation  acceptable  to 
the  learned  of  Germany  and  first  organized  Protestant  educa- 
tion in  the  Saxony  school  plan.  The  educational  ideas  of 
John  Calvin  had  great  influence  in  Switzerland,  the  Nether- 
lands, Scotland,  Huguenot  France,  Puritan  England  and 
America. 

The  Jesuits  organized  Catholic  secondary  education  in  their 
"inferior"  colleges  upon  a  narrow  humanistic  basis,  and  higher 
education  in  their  "superior"  colleges  with  •  philosophy  and 
theology  as  content.  The  "Ratio  Studiorum"  prescribes  in 
detail  the  content  and  method  of  work,  the  discipline,  the 
training  of  teachers,  etc.  Adherence  to  its  prescriptions  re- 
sulted in  remarkable  success.  But  it  delayed  the  Jesuits  in 
organizing  their  schools  to  meet  new  conditions. 

The  Jansenists  of  Port  Royal  appealed  to  the  understanding 
rather  than  to  the  memory,  hence  they  taught  in  the  ver- 
nacular. They  also  added  mathematics  and  logic  to  the 
curriculum,  and  made  reforms  in  methods  of  teaching  and  in 
discipline. 

Elementary  education  was  well  organized  for  the  Catholics 
by  the  Institute  of  the  Christian  Brothers  founded  by  La 

131 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Salle  in  1684.  They  also  introduced  the  class  recitation  system 
and  provided  for  the  training  of  elementary  school  teachers, 
two  notable  reforms. 


A.     THE  PROTESTANT  REVOLT 

The  Reformation  the  Outcome  of  the  Renaissance. — 
The  complaint  of  Luther  that  he  had  but  hatched  the 
egg  laid  by  Erasmus  and  the  retort  of  Erasmus  that  he 
had  laid  only  a  hen 's  egg  but  that*  Luther  had  hatched 
a  game-cock  indicates  the  close  relation  between  the 
Renaissance  and  the  Reformation.  The  Renaissance 
leaders  emphasized  the  individual 's  place  in  life.  Social 
control  as  exercised  through  human  institutions  had 
gone  so  far,  they  found,  as  to  leave  little  opportunity  for 
the  free  expression  of  individuality  in  any  direction. 
The  humanists  emphasized  human  reason  as  the  individ- 
ual's guide  in  life.  They  adopted  a  critical  attitude  to- 
wards whatever  rested  upon  mere  authority,  and  showed 
scant  respect  for  tradition.  The  Reformation  completed 
the  work  of  the  Renaissance  in  exalting  the  intrinsic 
worth  of  the  individual.  It  was  impossible  that  an  insti- 
tution like  the- Church,  which  had  guided  and  controlled 
the  lives  of  men  for  a  thousand  years,  should  escape  the 
critical  and  investigative  spirit  of  the  times.  The  Church 
had  acquired  great  wealth  and  power  and  undoubtedly 
abuses  existed  in  its  administration.  We  find,  therefore, 
that  even  before  Luther 's  revolt  practically  every  human- 
ist had  made  insistent  demands  for  reforms  in  the 
Church.  At  first  the  reforms  demanded  were  of  a  moral 
nature :  that  the  clergy  lead  better  lives,  that  high  church- 
men perform  the  duties  that  were  attached  to  their  big 
incomes,  that  the  monasteries  especially  give  some  evi- 
dence of  social  utility.  But  with  the  zeal  of  the  human- 

132 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

ists,  with  their  mania  for  the  study  of  original  sources  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and  the  Church  Fathers, 
it  was  inevitable  that  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the 
Church  should  be  questioned. 

The  Reformation  Principles. — All  the  reformers,  there- 
fore, were  humanists,  Luther  the  least  of  them.  In  the 
new  education  religion  was  to  provide  the  purpose,  hu- 
manism the  content.  Whatever  their  divergences  of  be- 
lief might  be,  the  reformers  at  first  agreed  upon  two 
things:  (1)  that  the  Bible,  not  the  Church,  was  the  infal- 
lible rule  of  faith  and  practice,  the  guide  to  what  one 
should  believe  and  how  one  should  live ;  (2)  that  the  indi- 
vidual must  interpret  for  himself  what  was  in  the  Bible. 
This  placed  a  splendid  emphasis  upon  human  reason  and, 
had  the  Protestant  leaders  remained  true  to  their  first 
principles,  western  civilization  might  have  been  advanced 
a  century  beyond  what  it  is  today.  But  the  promise  of 
the  Reformation  was  not  realized.  With  the  multiplica- 
tion of  sects  each  hating  each  other  as  much  as  they  hated 
the  old  church,  with  social  excesses  like  the  Peasants' 
Revolt,  which  it  was  claimed  was  the  fruit  of  the  reform 
preaching,  the  right  of  reason  to  determine  faith  became 
more  and  more  denied  until  it  existed  nowhere  in 
Europe,  among  either  Protestants  or  Catholics.  The  in- 
terference of  the  Church  continued  in  things  extra-relig- 
ious, in  questions  of  politics,  science  and  philosophy, 
where  reason  alone  should  guide.  Nevertheless  a  door 
had  been  opened  which  could  not  be  shut,  ideas  had 
been  promulgated  which  were  destined  eventually  to  have 
great  results,  and  there  were  some  immediate  effects  of 
direct  and  lasting  benefit. 

The  Educational  Significance  of  These  Principles.— 
The  principle  that  eternal  salvation,  which  was  the  chief 
concern  of  people  in  the  sixteenth  century,  depended 

133 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

upon  following  the  precepts  of  the  Bible  had  certain 
natural  educational  consequences.  (1)  The  first  of  these 
was  that  people  were  able  to  read  the  Bible.  This 
meant  an  enormously  increased  reading  public  receiving 
their  culture  chiefly  from  that  book.  The  invention  of 
printing  advanced  the  cause  of  the  reformers  immensely, 
as  it  had  that  of  the  humanists.  It  is  to  be  noted  that, 
whereas  previous  to  the  Reformation  nearly  all  the  books 
printed  were  in  Latin  and  Greek,  after  it  the  majority 
were  in  the  vernacular  tongues.  (2)  A  second  conse- 
quence was  an  emphasis  upon  the  vernacular  languages, 
for  the  Bible  had  to  be  rendered  into  the  vernacular  in 
order  to  reach  the  people.  There  were  other  German  edi- 
tions of  the  Bible  printed  before  Luther's,  but  in  dialects 
not  widely  spoken.  Luther  set  the  standard  for  the 
literary  German  of  the  future.  Calvin's  " Institutes  of 
the  Christian  Religion"  helped  make  the  standard  for 
French  prose,  and  Tyndale  's  New  Testament  for  English. 
(3)  A  third  consequence  was  a  demand  for  the  extension 
of  elementary  schools  in  which  at  least  the  ability  to 
read  the  Bible  should  be  given — to  girls  as  well  as  to 
boys,  since  they  also  had  souls  to  save.  It  can  hardly  be 
questioned,  however,  that  the  generation  after  the  Refor- 
mation in  Germany  was  not  so  well  provided  with  ele- 
mentary schools  as  the  generation  before,  because  the 
first  necessity  was  to  train  religious  leaders  and  that 
meant  to  turn  attention  to  the  Latin  schools.  But  a  new 
and  compelling  basis  for  elementary  education  was  pro- 
vided. 

These  consequences  were  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
life  and  work  of  Martin  Luther. 

Martin  Luther  (1483-1546) .—Luther  was  a  miner's 
son.  His  father  was  able  to  give  him  a  good  education 
and  sent  him  at  eighteen  to  the  University  of  Erfurt  to 

134 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

study  law.  But  at  twenty-two  he  became  a  monk  and 
at  twenty-five  was  appointed  a  teacher  of  philosophy  at 
Wittenberg.  It  was  during  his  incumbency  of  this  posi- 
tion that  he  worked  out  his  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  viz.,  that  man  cannot  be  saved  by  "good  works/' 
such  as  penance  and  fasting,  but  by  faith  alone  in  the 
merits  of  Christ.  He  came  to  this  conclusion  thru  a 
study  of  Augustine  and  primitive  Christianity,  and  at- 
tacked the  scholastic  theology  and  Aristotle  with  great 
vigor.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Luther  had  no  in- 
tention at  first  of  breaking  with  the  Church,  but  was  led 
by  circumstances  from  one  radical  step  to  another.  In 
the  latter  part  of  his  career  he  became  exceedingly  con- 
servative. Whereas  he  maintained  in  his  early  days  that 
"surely  what  is  contrary  to  reason  is  contrary  to  God," 
after  he  had  established  his  position  he  held  that  "the 
more  subtle  and  acute  reason  is,  the  more  poisonous  a 
beast  it  is. ' ' 

Educational  Work  of  Luther. — Luther's  first  educa- 
tional influence  was  thru  his  translation  of  the  Bible 
into  German,  his  publication  of  catechisms,  one  for  chil- 
dren and  the  other  for  adults,  and  his  composition  of 
hymns.  These  provided  the  entire  German  people  with 
material  for  reading  and  devotion  in  church  and  at 
home,  and  had  a  pronounced  cultural  effect.  More  spe- 
cifically his  influence  upon  education  was  made  thru  his 
"Letter  to  the  Mayors  and  Aldermen  of  All  Cities  of 
Germany  in  Behalf  of  Christian  Schools"  and  his  "Ser- 
mon on  the  Duty  of  Sending  Children  to  School."  In 
these  two  statements  we  find  definite  opinions  in  favor 
of  positions  which  mark  a  real  advance.  (1)  The  first 
of  these  positions  was  that  the  state  should  support  and 
control  elementary  schools,  to  which  parents  should 
be  compelled  to  send  their  children.  This  was  as 

135 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  state  as  for  th§  salvation 
of  the  child.  In  order  that  all  children — boys  and  girls 
— might  attend  these  schools,  they  were  to  be  so  organized 
that  the  children  might  attend  an  hour  or  two  a  day 
and  devote  to  their  practical  duties  the  rest  of  the  day. 
(2)  The  second  progressive  step  which  he  advocated  was 
that  the  work  of  these  schools  should  be  carried  on  in 
the  vernacular,  and  in  addition  to  imparting  the  ele- 
ments, they  should  have  as  their  chief  aim  to  give  a 
direct  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  (3)  The  third  was  that 
the  brighter  pupils,  "who  give  promise  of  becoming  ac- 
complished teachers,  preachers,  and  workers, ' '  be  given  a 
humanistic  education  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew. 
But  he  improved  upon  the  practice  of  the  humanists  by 
demanding  that  history,  natural  science,  music,  and  gym- 
nastics also  have  a  place  in  the  curriculum.  Moreover, 
he  made  some  excellent  pedagogic  suggestions,  such  as 
to  teach  a  foreign  language  by  practice  rather  than 
thru  grammar,  to  allow  for  the  natural  activity  of  chil- 
dren, and  to  deal  with  concrete  things.  Nevertheless, 
his  suggestions  about  schools  were  by  no  means  gen- 
erally realized  in  practice. 

Philip  Melanchthon  (1497-1560). — Luther's  work  was 
primarily  religious  and  only  incidentally  educational. 
His  educational  views  were  realized  in  part  by  his  dis- 
ciples, especially  by  Philip  Melanchthon.  Melanchthon 
was  a  grand-nephew  of  the  Hebrew  scholar  Keuchlin, 
and  he  had  a  splendid  training  in  the  New  Learning,  be- 
coming, indeed,  its  chief  exponent  in  Germany.  So  great 
was  his  influence  upon  educational  development  that  by 
general  consent  he  received  the  title  of  Praeceptor  Ger- 
maniae,  i.  e.,  Instructor  of  Germany.  This  title  was  fully 
deserved,  (1)  for  Melanchthon  was  the  most  popular  pro- 
fessor at  Wittenberg  and  his  lectures  on  Protestant  the- 

136 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

ology,  which  he  was  the  first  to  formulate,  drew  hun- 
dreds of  students  to  the  University.  (2)  His  students 
became  teachers  in  most  of  the  universities  and  Gymna- 
sien  of  Protestant  Germany,  for  no  one's  advice  on  edu- 
cational matters  was  sought  by  princes  and  cities  so  much 
as  his.  (3)  His  textbooks  on  Latin  grammar  and  Greek 
grammar  were  almost  universally  used  in  German 
schools,  and  his  texts  in  other  subjects,  especially  dialec- 
tics, rhetoric,  and  ethics,  were  highly  valued.  (4) 
Finally,  in  1528,  he  was  requested  by  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  to  organize  the  schools  of  that  state.  The  Saxony 
school  plan  which  he  formulated  provided  for  a  Latin 
school  in  every  town  and  village  of  the  Electorate.  From 
these  municipal  schools,  modified  by  Sturm  *  and  others, 
eventually  was  evolved  the  Gymnasium,  which,  as  has 
been  said,  became  the  very  core  of  the  German  educa- 
tional system.  TheuSaxonx  school  system,  which  was  the 
first  state^chooj^ system  in  history,  was  much  improved 
upon  by  the  Wiirtemburg  plan  of  1559.  For  while  the 
Saxony  plan  dealt  only  with  secondary  schools,  the 
Wiirtemburg  plan  provided  a  comprehensive  educational 
system,  from  vernacular  schools  teaching  reading,  writ- 
ing, counting,  sacred  music,  and  religion,  thru  Latin 
schools  of  six  classes  teaching  the  classics,  up  to  the  uni- 
versity. The  Wiirtemburg  plan  was  gradually  adopted 
with  modifications  by  the  other  German  states.  It  is 
to  be  remembered  that  the  narrow  humanism  elaborated 
by  Sturm  at  Strassburg  differed  only  in  extent  from  that 
of  Melanchthon.  Melanchthon  was  the  best  representa- 
tive of  the  union  of  humanist  and  Protestant  in  northern 
Europe.  He  succeeded  in  making  the  Reformation  ac- 
ceptable to  the  learned  as  Luther  had  made  it  acceptable 
to  the  common  people. 
1  See  p.  126. 

137 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Influence  of  John  Calvin. — Luther's  influence  was  by 
no  means  so  international  as  that  of  John  Calvin,  who 
was  the  first  Protestant  to  organize  an  elaborate  system 
of  theology.  Geneva  under  him  became  a  Protestant 
Home  to  which  exiles  from  France,  England,  Holland, 
and  Scotland  fled.  They  brought  back  to  their  home 
countries  the  Reformed  instead  of  the  Lutheran  faith, 
as  well  as  the  educational  ideals  which  prevailed  at 
Geneva.  Calvin  established  colleges  at  Geneva  and  else- 
where in  Switzerland  and  succeeded  in  inducing  Cor- 
derius,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  humanists  at  Paris, 
to  go  to  Geneva  to  help  organize  and  to  teach  in  them. 
These  colleges  were  similar  to  the  humanistic  secondary 
schools  of  Germany,  combining  the  teaching  of  religion 
and  the  classics.  They  were  widely  copied  by  the  Hugue- 
nots in  France  an'd  by  the  Dutch.  The  greatest  educa- 
tional influence  of  Geneva,  however,  was  upon  Scotland 
thru_John  Knox.  He  succeeded  in  establishing  the 
free  elementary  schools  under  the  control  of  the  parishes, 
which  have  done  so  much  for  the  enlightenment  of  the 
Scotch  people. 

The  Reformation  in  England. — Tho  the  English  hu- 
manists like  Sir  Thomas  More  and  John  Colet  had  de- 
manded reforms  in  the  Church,  the  Reformation  in  Eng- 
land was  far  more  a  political  than  a  religious  move- 
ment. Henry  VIII  never  accepted  the  religious  princi- 
ples of  the  Reformation;  and  the  Puritans,  not  the 
Church  of  England,  were  its  true  exponents  and  spiritual 
representatives.  Hence  the  destruction  of  the  monastic 
and  chantry  schools,  which  accompanied  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries,  was  disastrous  for  education  in  Eng- 
land. Not  all  of  the  wealth  secured  in  that  way  by 
Henry  VIII  and  Edward  VI  was  used  for  the  establish- 
ment of  Protestant  schools.  Tho  some  repair  of  the  evil 

138 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

was  made  in  secondary  education  in  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth and  the  first  two  Stuarts  by  the  founding  of  new 
grammar  schools,  practically  nothing  was  done  in  ele- 
mentary education.  England  remained  two  centuries 
behind  other  Protestant  countries  in  providing  ade- 
quately for  either  secondary  or  elementary  education. 
This  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that,  whereas  Germany 
tended  toward  a  state  educational  system,  England 
tended  toward  a  church  educational  system.  The  schools 
that  withstood  the  shock  of  the  Reformation  and  the 
new  schools  that  continued  to  be  founded,  until  the  Civil 
War  put  an  end  to  the  movement,  retained  the  old  admin- 
istrative machinery,  adopted  the  narrow  humanistic  cur- 
riculum, and  substituted  the  Anglican  for  the  Catholic 
faith.  In  America  the  Puritans  who  settled  New  England 
and  the  Huguenots  and  Dutch  Reformed  who  settled  in 
other  colonies  north  of  Virginia  realized  Protestant  prin- 
ciples by  the  establishment  of  both  elementary  and  sec- 
ondary schools  which  were  thoroly  religious  in  char- 
acter. The  secondary  schools,  as  already  stated,  com- 
bined religious  with  classical  training  and  aimed  at  the 
preparation  of  Christian  ministers.  In  the  Southern 
colonies,  where  the  Church  of  England  was  supreme, 
comparatively  little  was  done  for  the  cause  of  education. 
Formalism  in  the  Protestant  Schools. — The  formalism 
which  even  previously  had  begun  to  characterize  the 
humanistic  schools  was  much  intensified  by  the  Reforma- 
tion. Christianity  became  identified  again  with  theology. 
Subscription  to  a  creed  rather  than  right  living  was  the 
evidence  of  a  man's  religion.  To  inculcate  that  creed  in 
the  young  was  the  first  task  of  education,  and  the  cate- 
chism was  added  to  the  Latin  grammar  as  an  instrument 
of  torture  upon  the  helpless  schoolboy.  To  memorize  it, 
as  well  as  large  parts  of  the  gospels  and  epistles,  was  as 

139 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

necessary  as  to  know  by  heart  large  portions  of  the 
classics.  The  methods  of  teaching  became  even  more 
rigid,  the  discipline  even  more  severe,  the  divorce  from 
practical  life  in  content  of  study  even  more  pronounced. 
As  a  rule,  the  Protestant  school  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury was  a  place  of  gloom  and  even  terror  for  childhood. 
The  religious  scholasticism  differed  from  that  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  in  content  but  not  in  spirit. 

B.     THE  CATHOLIC  REACTION 

The  Council  of  Trent. — Luther's  revolt  accelerated  the 
attempts  at  reform  within  the  Catholic  Church,  which 
culminated  in  the  Council  of  Trent  (1545-1563).  This 
council  did  a  remarkable  piece  of  work  in  eliminating 
the  abuses  which  had  given  most  offense,  in  carefully 
defining  articles  of  faith  with  respect  to  which  there 
had  been  any  uncertainty,  and  in  making  regulations 
regarding  education.  The  work  of  the  Renaissance  had 
been  essentially  a  campaign  of  education  against  the  pre- 
vailing ignorance.  The  Reformation  leaders  had  relied 
upon  education  as  the  chief  instrument  to  advance  their 
cause.  The  old  church  determined  to  use  the  same  in- 
strument in  its  work  of  rejuvenescence.  Several  teach- 
ing congregations  were  founded,  the  most  important  of 
which  was  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

Origin  of  the  Jesuit  Order. — Ignatius  Loyola  (1491- 
1556) ,  the  founder  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  was  a  Spanish 
nobleman  who,  while  convalescing  from  a  wound  received 
in  battle,  was  converted  to  a  religious  life  by  reading 
the  lives  of  Christ  and  the  saints.  He  determined  to 
become  a  soldier  of  Christ,  and  in  order  to  secure  the 
necessary  education  spent  eleven  years  in  schools  and 
universities,  finally  securing  the  master's  degree  at  Paris. 

140 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

While  at  Paris  he  interested  the  six  men  who  formed 
the  nucleus  of  his  order.  In  1540  two  of  them  accom- 
panied him  to  Rome,  where  they  secured  the  approval  of 
the  Pope  for  the  organization  of  the  society. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  had  been  the  exalta- 
tion of  the  individual;  that  of  the  Jesuits  was  his  sup- 
pression. The  Reformation,  tho  it  did  not  in  fact  ad- 
here to  the  principle,  had  at  least  proclaimed  the  re- 
lease of  the  individual  from  institutional  control;  the 
Jesuits  demanded  his  complete  subjection  to  institutional 
control.  Loyola  had  been  a  soldier  and  he  organized  his 
society  upon  a  military  basis.  Unquestioned  obedience 
to  authority  was  the  fundamental  doctrine.  The  consti- 
tution, which  was  prepared  by  Loyola  himself,  places  at 
the  head  of  the  society  a  "general,"  who  is  elected  for 
life,  has  immense  powers,  and  who  resides  at  Rome.  The 
countries  in  which  the  society  works  are  divided  into 
provinces,  at  the  head  of  each  of  which  is  a  "provin- 
cial" appointed  by  the  general.  Each  college  in  a  prov- 
ince has  at  its  head  a  rector,  appointed  by  the  general 
but  responsible  to  the  provincial.  Responsible  to  the 
rector  but  appointed  by  the  provincial  are  the  prefects 
of  study  and  of  discipline,  who  supervise  the  work  of 
professors  and  preceptors.  The  organization,  like  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  is  one  of  checks  and 
balances  intended  to  make  change  difficult  of  attainment. 

The  "Ratio  Studiorum." — The  aim  of  the  society  is 
best  expressed  in  its  motto  "Ad  Majorem  Dei  Gloriam" 
(A.  M.  D.  G.),  i.  e.,  everything  to  the  greater  glory  of 
God.  As  the  Church  was  God's  chosen  instrument, 
the  motto  meant,  humanly  speaking,  everything  to  the 
greater  glory  of  the  Church.  This  was  to  be  accom- 
plished by  three  methods:  preaching,  teaching,  and  con- 
fessing. The  order  was  organized  to  perform  these  func- 

141 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

tions  primarily  among  the  heathen  and  in  Catholic  coun- 
tries, but  in  practice  it  not  only  accomplished  its  work 
in  those  places,  but  became  the  chief  instrument  of  the 
Church  in  regaining  lands  and  souls  lost  thru  the 
Protestant  Revolt.  The  constitution  consists  of  ten  parts, 
of  which  the  longest  is  the  one  dealing  with  educational 
matters.  In  1584  the  general  appointed  a  commission  to 
organize  a  plan  of  work  which,  when  completed,  was  to  be 
submitted  to  the  ablest  teachers  of  the  provinces.  This 
commission  studied  the  best  educational  systems  of  the 
times,  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  its  work  received  the 
most  careful  revision  as  the  result  of  the  criticism  of  the 
teachers  of  the  order.  When  the  "  Ratio  Studiorum,"  i.  e., 
the  method  of  studies,  was  published  in  1599,  as  an 
expansion  of  part  four  of  the  constitution,  it  embodied 
not  only  the  best  thought,  but  the  results  of  forty  years 
of  experience  in  educational  work.  It  provides  in  great 
detail  for  the  administration  of  the  college,  the  content 
of  study,  the  methods  of  teaching,  discipline,  in  fact, 
everything  that  has  to  do  with  education. 

The  Jesuit  Colleges. — The  Jesuits  did  not  engage  in 
elementary  education,  their  purpose  being  to  train  lead- 
ers. Their  colleges  were  divided  into  lower  and  upper 
colleges.  The  lower  college  gave  a  humanistic  education 
similar  to  that  given  in  the  Protestant  Gymnasium.  The 
study  of  Latin  from  the  narrow  Ciceronian  point  of  view 
formed  the  chief  content,  there  being  but  little  Greek. 
History,  geography,  science,  and  mathematics  were  given 
under  the  title  "  erudition, "  but  only  as  necessary  to 
understanding  of  the  classical  authors  studied.  Boys 
were  admitted  to  the  lower  college  at  the  age  of  ten  to 
fourteen,  and  the  course  was  usually  six  years.  In  the 
upper  college,  which  corresponded  to  the  existing  uni- 
versity, the  first  three  years  were  devoted  to  philosophy, 

142 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

with  Aristotle  as  guide,  and  the  last  four  to  theology, 
with  Thomas  Aquinas  as  master.  An  additional  two 
years  could  be  elected  by  those  intending  to  prepare  a 
thesis  for  the  doctor's  degree.  This  organization  of  work 
remained  practically  without  change  until  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  order  in  1773.  When  the  society  was  revived 
in  1814  the  need  of  a  new  content  was  manifest,  and  the 
"Ratio  Studiorum"  was  revised  in  1832.  Altho  the 
classics  continued  to  be  the  important  element  of  the 
course  in  the  lower  colleges,  provision  was  made  for 
mathematics,  the  sciences,  modern  languages,  and  physi- 
cal training.  Since  1906  the  "Ratio  Studiorum "  is  not 
binding  uniformly  in  regard  to  content  and  method  of 
work,  but  each  province  is  to  decide  upon  the  curriculum 
according  to  its  peculiar  needs. 

The  educational  success  of  the  society  was  almost  in- 
stantaneous. The  Jesuits  were  besought  by  bishops 
everywhere  to  open  colleges  in  their  dioceses.  Within  a 
century  they  had  a  practical  monopoly  of  higher  educa- 
tion in  Catholic  countries  and  had  made  great  headway 
in  Protestant  countries  wherever  they  were  permitted 
to  reside.  When  the  society  was  suppressed  in  1773  it 
had  more  than  seven  hundred  institutions,  two  hundred 
thousand  students,  and  twenty  thousand  members.  From 
the  very  beginning  the  graduates  of  the  Jesuit  colleges 
occupied  the  highest  positions  in  the  Church,  in  the  state, 
and  in  the  professions ;  and  the  Jesuits  were  feared  and 
hated  by  the  Protestants  as  their  most  dangerous  en- 
emies. They  chiefly  were  responsible  for  the  reconquest 
of  southern  and  western  Germany  to  the  Catholic  faith 
and  for  its  maintenance  in  France  and  in  other  countries. 

Causes  of  Their  Success. — The  great  success  of  the 
Jesuits  was  due  to  certain  well-defined  causes,  among 
which  were  the  following : 

143 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

1.  Their  splendid  organization,  which  resulted  in  the 
education  that  they  gave  being  thoro.    This  was  true  of 
certain  of  the  Protestant  Gymnasien,  like  Sturm 's,  but 
it  was  true  of  all  the  Jesuit  colleges.     Moreover,  their 
organization  made  for  uniformity.     A  Jesuit  teaching 
at  Lisbon  in  the  seventeenth  century  might  be  trans- 
ferred to  a  similar  class  at  Cologne  and  continue  the 
work  there  as  if  he  were  still  teaching  in  Lisbon. 

2.  Their  gratuitous  instruction.    Education  was  abso- 
lutely free  to  all.    A  good  Protestant  Gymnasium  in  de- 
batable territory  had  to  pay  decent  salaries  to  its  excel- 
lent teachers,  who  might  have  families  to  support.    This 
necessitated  charging  high  fees.    If  a  Jesuit  college  was 
established  there,  as  usually  happened,  the  advantage  it 
had  over  its  opponent  is  obvious.     Even  many  Prot- 
estants would  send  their  children  to  it. 

3.  Their  excellently   trained  teachers.     The   Jesuits 
Were  always  on  the  lookout  for  particularly  able  youths 
to  become  novices  of  the  society.    Before  such  a  selected 
youth  became  a  teacher  in  the  lower  college,  he  had  to 
complete  at  least  the  course  in  philosophy  in  the  upper 
college ;  and  to  teach  in  the  upper  college,  he  must  have 
completed  the  course  in  theology.    As  early  as  1565  the 
society  caused  to  be  established  in  each  province  one  semi- 
nary for  the  training  of  teachers,  which  the   future 
teacher  attended  two  years.    When  teaching  in  the  lower 
college  he  was  under  the  careful  supervision  of  the  pre- 
fect of  studies. 

4.  Their  methods  of  teaching.    These  aimed  at  doing 
at  any  one  time  a  small  amount  of  work  intensively  and 
making  sure  it  was  well  done  and  retained.    It  resulted 
in  their  emphasizing: 

a.  Oral  Instruction.    This  was  called  the  "prelection" 
and  consisted  in  a  lecture  in  the  upper  college  and  an 

144 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

explanation  in  the  lower.  A  short  passage  of  an  author 
would  receive  a  first  explanation  to  obtain  its  general 
meaning;  a  second  for  its  grammatical  construction;  a 
third  for  "erudition,"  i.  e.,  to  explain  historical,  geo- 
graphical, or  other  allusions ;  a  fourth  explanation  of  its 
rhetorical  elements ;  a  fifth  of  any  moral  influence  to  be 
drawn ;  and  a  sixth,  ' '  a  comparative  study  of  the  Latin- 
ity. ' '  It  should  be  noted  that  the  Jesuits  wrote  most  of 
their  own  textbooks  and  used  carefully  expurgated  edi- 
tions of  the  classics. 

b.  Memorizing.     The  emphasis  upon  this  is  evident 
from  what  has  been  said  of  the  "prelection."     "Repe- 
titio  mater  studiorum  est"  (Repetition  is  the  mother  of 
studies),  was  one  of  the  mottoes  of  the  society. 

c.  Reviews.     Constant  reviews  attended  their  work. 
Each  day  began  with  a  review  of  the  work  of  the  day  be- 
fore ;  each  week  ended  with  a  review  of  the  work  of  the 
week;  and  the  last  month  of  the  year  was  given  to  a 
review  of  the  work  of  the  year. 

5.  Their  methods  of  discipline.  At  a  time  when  cor- 
poral punishment  was  the  favorite  method  of  securing 
good  conduct  and  the  chief  stimulus  to  study,  the  Jesuits 
practically  abolished  it  in  their  schools.  It  was  used 
only  as  a  last  resort  and  never  inflicted  by  a  teacher.  In 
its  stead  they  used  prizes  and  emulation.  They  carried 
emulation  to  such  an  extent  that  every  pupil  had  his 
1  i  rival, ' '  with  whom  he  was  to  compete  in  lessons  and  in 
conduct.  Often  the  boys  were  divided  into  sides  and 
engaged  in  a  ' '  concertation, "  i.  e.,  a  debate  upon  some 
feature  of  the  lesson  in  grammar  or  rhetoric;  and  the 
side  that  won  would  be  given  some  prize  or  granted  some 
privilege.  Voluntary  societies  called  "academies"  exist- 
ed in  each  college,  to  which  the  most  virtuous  and  tal- 
ented students  were  admitted,  and  in  which  orations,  dec- 

145 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

lamations  and  debates  were  practiced.  Dramatics,  to 
train  in  speaking  and  acting,  which  were  also  a  feature  of 
the  best  Protestant  schools,  were  much  emphasized  in  the 
Jesuit  schools.  Games  and  physical  training  were  en- 
couraged for  physical  welfare. 

Criticism  of  Jesuit  Education. — To  describe  the  con- 
duct of  work  of  a  Jesuit  school  is  to  state  its  good  side. 
Briefly  the  work  was  thoro,  systematic,  efficient.  The 
teachers  aimed  to  make  school  work  pleasant  and  they 
succeeded.  Without  question  they  were  the  best  teachers 
of  the  seventeenth  century  and  continued  to  be  so  as  long 
as  the  humanistic  content  of  schools  remained  socially 
useful.  But  their  system  was  so  rigid  that  they  were  not 
so  able  to  conform  to  new  conditions  as  the  Protestant 
school  systems — which  is  saying  very  little.  They  were 
doing  practically  the  same  thing  in  the  same  way  in  1773, 
when  they  were  suppressed,  that  they  had  been  doing 
a  century  and  a  half  before,  at  the  height  of  their  influ- 
ence. In  the  paucity  of  content,  i.  e.,  almost  exclusive 
devotion  to  Latin,  and  in  their  formalism  in  method 
they  erred  in  common  with  the  Protestant  schools.  And 
their  emphasis  upon  memory  work  at  the  expense  of  an 
appeal  to  the  reason  was  characteristic  of  all  Ciceronian- 
ism.  But  their  excessive  use  of  emulation  must  often 
have  aroused  bitter  feeling;  and  their  concertations  and 
disputations  must  have  appealed  powerfully  to  the  love 
of  display. 

The  Jansenists  of  Port  Royal. — Tho  the  Jesuits 
secured  a  practical  monopoly  of  higher  education  in 
Catholic  countries  during  the  seventeenth  century,  this 
monopoly  did  not  exist  without  opposition.  The  most 
important  reaction  against  the  Jesuit  system  was  that 
of  the  Jansenists  of  Port  Royal.  These  were  followers 
of  Bishop  Jansen,  a  Dutch  bishop  whose  studies  of  St. 

146 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

Augustine  had  led  him  to  a  statement  of  doctrines  re- 
sembling those  of  Calvin.  Tho  his  doctrines  fell 
under  the  ban  of  the  Church,  his  followers  remained 
within  the  fold.  A  number  of  the  most  prominent  and 
distinguished  of  these,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Abbe 
de  St.  Cyran,  settled  at  Port  Royal,  near  Versailles,  to 
devote  themselves  to  prayer  and  study.  In  addition  to 
their  religious  devotions,  manual  labor,  and  works  of 
charity,  these  solitaires  engaged  in  educational  labors 
which  were  marked  by  a  number  of  distinct  advances 
over  the  prevailing  methods. 

The  "Little  Schools"  of  Port  Royal  (1637-1660).— De- 
spite their  acceptance  of  the  rationalistic  philosophy  of 
Descartes  they  held  to  the  belief  that  human  nature  is 
essentially  bad.  The  child  left  to  his  own  inclinations 
and  impulses  tends  to  evil,  hence  he  must  be  brought  up 
in  an  atmosphere  of  piety  and  in  constant  association 
with  his  teacher.  Only  thus  can  the  sole  end  of  educa- 
tion be  attained,  viz.,  to  develop  the  moral  and  religious 
character  of  the  child.  For  this  reason  the  "  little 
schools "  never  numbered  more  than  fifty  pupils,  usually 
not  more  than  twenty-five;  and  a  teacher  seldom  had 
charge  of  more  than  six  pupils.  These  "Gentlemen  of 
Port  Royal ' '  had  associated  with  them  a  number  of  rare 
women  who  gave  an  education  to  girls  similar  to  that 
received  by  the  boys.  Pupils  were  usually  admitted  to 
the  schools  at  about  ten  and  remained  until  sixteen  or 
seventeen.  The  schools  existed  altogether  but  twenty- 
four  years.  The  first  was  established  at  Port  Royal  in 
1637,  and  all  of  them  were  suppressed  in  1660  by  Louis 
XIV,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jesuits. 

Educational  Principles  of  the  Jansenists. — The  Port 
Royalists  did  not  rise  above  the  prevailing  practice  of 
overemphasizing  the  literary  element  in  education.  They 

147 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

neglected  science  and  made  no  place  for  physical  train- 
ing. But  they  predicated  as  their  fundamental  principle 
that  children  should  study  only  what  they  understand. 
From  this  principle  certain  practices  naturally  followed, 
among  which  were : 

1.  Instruction  must  begin  with  the  vernacular,  in  the 
teaching  of  which  they  made  a  great  advance  by  using 
phonic  methods  in  reading  instead  of  the  prevailing 
alphabetic  method. 

2.  Giving  an  introductory  survey  of  classical  litera- 
ture by  means  of  translations.    After  study  of  the  Latin 
language  was  begun  a  wide  selection  of  authors  was 
made,  to  get  the  content  of  the  classics ;  and  only  so  much 
grammar  as  was  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  them. 

3.  Teaching  mathematics  as  a  good  training  for  the 
understanding.    This  was  followed  by  the  study  of  logic. 

4.  Compiling  new  textbooks  to  carry  out  their  idea 
of  appealing  to  the  reason  instead  of  the  memory.    The 
"Port  Royal  Geometry"  and  the  "Port  Royal  Logic" 
were  used  in  schools  long  after  the  suppression  of  the 
"little  schools." 

5.  Relying  entirely  upon  the  affection  of  the  child  and 
the  zeal  of  the  teacher  as  a  method  of  discipline.    The 
Port  Royalists  not  only  rejected  corporal  punishment  but 
condemned  the  emulation  of  the  Jesuits  even  more  se- 
verely, as  not  consistent  with  the  development  of  a  moral 
and  pious  character. 

The  practices  just  described  were  distinct  advances 
upon  those  in  use  at  the  time.  It  was  a  pity  that  they 
were  made  use  of  in  an  atmosphere  of  excessive  piety 
which  must  have  chilled  a  good  deal  of  the  natural  spon- 
taneity of  childhood.  The  great  influence  exerted  by  the 
Port  Royalists  came  not  so  much  thru  their  school  work 
as  thru  their  activity  after  their  suppression.  They 

148 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

produced  many  treatises  on  various  aspects  of  education, 
which  had  a  profound  influence.  When  we  mention  the 
names  of  Pascal,  La  Fontaine,  Rollin,  and  Racine  as  some 
of  the  many  eminent  Port  Royalists,  we  can  understand 
why  their  influence  was  so  disproportionate  to  their  num- 
bers. 

La  Salle  and  the  Christian  Brothers, — The  Jansenists, 
like  the  Jesuits,  were  primarily  interested  in  secondary 
and  higher  education.  As  already  stated,  this  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  period  of  religious  controversy.  By  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Protestants  in  Ger- 
many, Holland,  and  Scotland  had  organized  systems  of 
elementary  education  which  gave  a  knowledge  of  the 
rudiments  at  least.  In  Catholic  countries,  tho  desultory 
attempts  at  providing  elementary  education  had  been 
made,  real  progress  dates  from  the  foundation  of  the 
Institute  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Christian  Schools  by 
Jean  Baptiste  de  la  Salle  in  1684. 

The  "Conduct  of  Schools." — La  Salle  had  become 
deeply  interested  in  the  education  of  poor  children  in 
Rheims,  where  he  was  a  canon  of  the  cathedral.  In  1684 
he  organized  his  Institute,  which  was  to  be  devoted  to 
the  gratuitous  teaching  of  the  poor  and  to  be  composed 
of  lay  brethren,  tho  they  were  bound  by  the  usual 
monastic  vows.  In  order  to  attach  his  followers  per- 
manently to  the  education  of  the  poor,  La  Salle  forbade 
them  to  teach  Latin.  La  Salle,  like  Pestalozzi,  was  in- 
spired to  educational  reform  by  love  of  the  poor.  The 
schools  at  Rheims  were  so  successful  that  the  movement 
spread  rapidly  to  Paris  and  other  cities  of  France,  tho 
because  of  opposition  by  interested  parties  it  did  not 
receive  the  Papal  sanction  until  1725,  six  years  after  La 
Salle 's  death.  The  "Conduct  of  Schools"  is  the  "Ratio 
Studiorum ' '  of  the  order.  It  was  drawn  up  by  La  Salle 

149 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

himself,  and  describes  in  minute  detail  the  organization 
and  management  of  the  school,  the  content  of  work,  the 
methods  of  teaching,  and  the  discipline.  It  leaves  no 
more  to  the  initiative  of  the  individual  teacher  than  did 
the  ' '  Ratio  Studiorum. ' '  This  detailed  prescription  was 
necessary  at  a  time  when  elementary  teachers  were  with- 
out either  knowledge  or  training ;  but  it  became  a  menace 
in  the  course  of  time. 

Work  of  the  Schools  of  the  Christian  Brothers.— The 
content  of  study  in  the  schools  of  the  Christian  Brothers 
consisted  of  reading,  writing,  elementary  arithmetic,  and 
religion,  of  which  the  most  important  was  religion.  The 
atmosphere  of  the  school  was  as  deeply  pious  as  that  of  a 
Jansenist  school  and  had  as  repressive  an  influence  upon 
the  pupils.  At  a  time  when  the  chief  characteristic  of 
the  ordinary  elementary  school  was  noise,  the  Christian 
Brothers  went  to  the  other  extreme  in  enforcing  silence. 
Written  work  was  emphasized,  signals  used  instead  of 
commands,  and  corporal  punishment  freely  inflicted  as 
a  form  of  discipline.  But  because  of  two  great  improve- 
ments the  work  of  the  schools  was  superior  to  that  of 
other  elementary  schools.  These  were : 

1.  The  training  of  teachers.     The  ordinary  elemen- 
tary school  teacher  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  a 
broken-down  soldier,  church  sexton,  or  poor  artisan,  who 
eked  out  his  meager  income  by  whatever  he  could  get 
"keeping  school."    He  usually  had  little  intelligence,  no 
training  of  any  kind,  and  often  a  bad  moral  influence 
upon  the  children  who  went  to  him.     Almost  from  the 
beginning  La  Salle  organized  training  courses  for  teach- 
ers, and  nobody  was  permitted  to  teach  who  had  not  at- 
tended one  of  them. 

2.  The  class  method  of  teaching.    Everywhere  at  the 
time  the  method  of  teaching  used  in  the  elementary 

150 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

schools  was  individual  instruction.  In  fact  the  teacher 
did  practically  no  teaching,  he  simply  heard  children 
recite.  In  reading  they  sat  in  their  seats  and  memorized 
as  much  as  they  could  of  the  lesson  and  then  repeated  it 
individually  to  the  teacher.  In  writing  they  imitated  the 
copies  set  by  the  teacher  until  he  was  satisfied.  In  arith- 
metic they  mechanically  applied  rules  which  they  had 
memorized.  Most  of  the  time  and  effort  was  wasted. 
The  Christian  Brothers  graded  pupils  into  classes,  ac- 
cording to  their  ability,  and  then  provided  all  the  chil- 
dren of  a  class  with  copies  of  the  one  book  and  a  single 
teacher  taught  them  simultaneously.  Tho  this  great 
movement  had  already  been  suggested  by  Comenius,  the 
Christian  Brothers  deserve  the  credit  of  applying  it  in 
practice  on  a  large  scale. 

Success  of  the  Christian  Brothers. — These  improved 
methods  account  for  the  rapid  success  of  the  schools  of 
the  Christian  Brothers  in  France.  When  the  order  was 
suppressed  during  the  French  Revolution,  the  Brothers 
numbered  nearly  one  thousand,  in  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  houses,  and  educated  over  thirty-six  thousand 
pupils.  Moreover,  La  Salle  had  established  before  his 
death  boarding-schools,  industrial  schools,  and  reforma- 
tories (protectories),  which  also  slowly  increased.  Since 
the  restoration  of  the  order  in  France  in  1803  its  schools 
have  multiplied  with  astonishing  rapidity  over  the  entire 
world.  The  " Conduct  of  Schools"  always  admitted  of 
easy  revision,  and  the  Christian  Brothers  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  have  made  their  work  conform  to  the 
needs  of  the  districts  in  which  they  settled.  Moreover 
they  have  engaged  not  only  in  elementary,  but  in  sec- 
ondary, collegiate,  and  even  technical,  commercial,  and 
professional  education.  Nowhere  have  they  been  more 
successful  than  in  the  United  States. 

151 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Education  of  Girls. — It  has  already  been  stated 
that  the  Protestant  reformers  extended  to  girls  their 
demand  that  all  should  be  taught  to  read  the  Bible.  The 
Wiirtemburg  plan  adopted  in  1559  provided  for  elemen- 
tary schools  for  all  children — boys  and  girls.  Weimar 
made  elementary  education  compulsory  for  all  in  1619, 
and  in  1642  Duke  Ernest  the  Pious,  of  Gotha,  established 
a  comprehensive  system  of  education  which  foreshadowed 
the  German  system  of  today.  By  it  all  children,  boys  and 
girls,  were  compelled  to  attend  school  daily  from  the  fifth 
to  the  twelfth  year  and  parents  were  fined  for  non- 
attendance  of  their  children.  Girls  received  some  elemen- 
tary education  also  in  most  of  the  other  Protestant  coun- 
tries, England  being  the  most  notable  exception.  No  pro- 
vision of  the  same  extent  was  made  in  Catholic  coun- 
tries. Girls  continued  to  be  sent  to  convents,  and  in 
1535  the  Ursulines  were  founded  as  an  order  whose  pri- 
mary purpose  was  the  education  of  girls.  The  Port 
Royalists  provided  some  educational  opportunities  for 
girls,  but  they  were  by  no  means  equal  to  those  which 
were  provided  for  boys.  The  best  book  up  to  that  time, 
and  one  of  the  best  of  any  time,  on  the  education  of  girls 
was  Bishop  Fenelon's  "On  the  Education  of  Girls." 
Fenelon  (1651-1715)  had  been  placed  in  charge  of  the 
Convent  of  New  Catholics,  in  which  were  taught  girls 
converted  fr»m  Protestantism  after  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685.  While  engaged  in  that  work 
he  wrote  this  treatise,  which  contains  suggestions  that 
were  not  only  eminently  practical,  but  founded  upon  a 
sound  child  psychology.  It  had  very  little  influence, 
however,  on  the  education  of  the  day,  which  for  girls 
as  for  boys  continued  to  be  repressive  and  dogmatic. 

Decline  of  Interest  in  Education.— As  stated,  the  di- 
vision of  Protestantism  into  rival  sects  quarreling  over 

152 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

trivial  points  of  doctrine  and  disputing  upon  abstract 
and  speculative  matters  not  susceptible  of  proof  foisted 
upon  higher  education  a  new  scholasticism  which  became 
as  much  the  enemy  of  educational  progress  as  the  old  had 
been.  As  practically  the  whole  of  men's  thought  and 
energy  was  given  to  religious  controversy,  little  remained 
to  be  devoted  to  the  investigation  of  the  problems  of 
nature  and  society.  As  a  knowledge  of  Latin  was  con- 
sidered by  Catholics  and  Protestants  a  necessary  prelim- 
inary to  the  study  of  theology,  the  formal  study  of  the 
structural  side  of  that  language  was  made  the  chief  work 
of  the  secondary  school.  The  vernacular  and  the  ele- 
mentary school  everywhere,  among  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants alike,  found  very  subordinate  consideration. 
With  the  success  of  the  Jesuits  the  bitterness  between  the 
adherents  of  the  old  and  the  new  faiths  increased  and 
finally  resulted  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  This  was  a 
most  severe  blow  to  education.  Not  only  were  schools 
by  the  hundreds  ruined  or  closed  and  the  resources  nec- 
essary for  their  support  destroyed,  but  enthusiasm  for 
education  itself  waned.  The  period  of  the  religious  wars 
was  essentially  a  period  of  educational  stagnation. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Reformation,  Luther, 
Melanchthon,    Jesuits,    Jansenists,    Christian   Brothers,   etc. 

Catholic    Encyclopedia.     Similar  articles. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.     Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chaps.  XXIII-XXV,  XXVII,  XXVIII. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.    A  History  of  Education.     Vol.  II,  Chaps. 
XV-XVI. 

MONROE,  P.     Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.    Chap. 
VII. 

PAINTER,  F.  V.  N.    Luther  on  Education. 

153 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

PARKER,  S.  C.     The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Edu- 
cation.    Chap.  II. 

PAULSEN,  F.     German  Education,    pp.  79-88. 

QUICK,  R.  H.    Educational  Reformers.    Chaps.  III-IV,  XL 

SCHWICKERATH,  R.     Jesuit  Education. 


QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  In  what  respect  did  the  individualism  of  the  Sophists 
in  the  fourth  century  B.C.  differ  from  that  of  the  Protestants 
in  the  sixteenth  century  A.D. 

2.  Compare  the  influence  of  the  Bible  as  the  chief  reading 
matter  of  the  people  of  the  sixteenth  century  with  that  of 
the  daily  newspaper  as  the  chief  reading  matter  of  the  people 
today. 

3.  Compare  the  influence  of  Homer  upon  the  Greeks  with 
that  of  the  Bible  upon  the  English. 

4.  Had    Luther's    emphasis    upon    the    performance    of 
domestic  work  at  home  by  children  any  relation  to  the  modern 
movement  in  favor  of  industrial  education? 

5.  Compare  the  organization  and  curriculum  of  the  Prot- 
estant Gymnasium  with  those  of  the  Jesuit  college. 

6.  Why  have  the  mass  of  the  people  of  Scotland  during 
the  past  two  centuries  been  so  much  more  intelligent  than 
those  of  England? 

7.  In  what  respects  did  the  work  of  St.  Benedict  and  of 
Loyola  resemble  each  other? 

8.  Arrange  in  the  order  of  preference  the  following  stimuli 
to    study:    corporal    punishment,    interest,    desire    to    please 
parents  and  teachers,  prizes,  love  of  learning  for  its  own 
sake,  emulation. 

9.  Is  the  modern  emphasis  on  dramatization  as  a  method 
of  development  of  self-expression  the  result  of  the  Jesuits' 
practice  in  giving  plays? 

10.  In   what  respects  did  the  Port  Royalist  practice  of 

154 


RELIGIOUS  FORMALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

teaching  Latin  from  translations  differ  from  the  modern  prac- 
tice of  using  "ponies"? 

11.  Why  did  not  the  Renaissance,  the  Reformation,  or  the 
Counter  Reformation  have  better  results  in  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  women? 

12.  State  the  arguments  for  and  against  giving  religion 
a  place  in  the  public  school  curriculum.    Does  the  Gary  plan 
effect  a  compromise? 

13.  State  the  arguments  for  and  against  appropriation  of 
public  moneys  for  sectarian  education. 


CHAPTER  X 

EEACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM— EEALISM  IN 
EDUCATION 

Outline. — Formalized  humanism  was  constantly  opposed  by 
reformers  who  demanded  that  education  deal  with  the  realities 
of  the  present  life  and  prepare  for  its  concrete  duties.  These 
realists  may  be  classified  for  purposes  of  study  into  the  fol- 
lowing groups: 

1.  Humanistic  realists,  who  wished  to  secure  a  knowledge 
of  human  society  and  its  institutions  and  of  nature  and  man's 
reactions  to  nature  chiefly  thru  a  study  of  the  classics  for 
their  content,  not  their  form.     Milton's  "Tractate  on  Educa- 
tion" represents  this  view. 

2.  Social   realists,   who   emphasized   modern   foreign   lan- 
guages and  travel  for  intercourse  with  men,  and  social  subjects 
like  history  and  politics,  rather  than  grammar  and  rhetoric. 
Montaigne,  in  two  of  his  essays,  "Pedantry"  and  "The  Edu- 
cation of  Children,"  represents  this  view. 

3.  Sense-realists,  who  demanded  a  new  content  and  a  new 
method   in    education,    viz.,    the   study    of   things,    especially 
nature,  and  the  inductive  method.  Francis  Bacon  in  "The  New 
Atlantis"  foreshadows  this  view. 

Comenius  is  the  best  representative  of  sense-realism.  The 
principles  which  he  advocated  were  set  forth  in  his  "Magna 
Didactica,"  which  practically  remained  unnoticed.  But  he  was 
successful  in  introducing  some  of  them  into  his  Latin  texts, 
which  were  very  popular. 

Social  realism  had  a  direct  influence  upon  the  RitteraJcade- 
mien  in  Germany,  and  humanistic  realism  and  sense-realism 
upon  the  academy  in  England  and  America.  The  greatest 

156 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

influence  of  sense-realism  was  upon  the  pietists'  schools,  and 
it  was  finally  incorporated  in  the  Eealschule. 

Meaning  of  Realism  in  Education. — It  cannot  be  too 
strongly  emphasized  that  none  of  the  movements  de- 
scribed in  the  last  chapter  had  any  effect  in  diminishing 
the  formalism  into  which  humanistic  education  had 
fallen.  Being  all  religious  in  nature,  they  intensified 
that  formalism  and  added  to  it  a  respect  for  authority 
and  tradition  which  was  alien  to  the  spirit  of  true 
humanism.  But,  altho  institutional  education  tended 
strongly  to  suppress  the  free  expression  of  individuality, 
the  human  spirit  found  vent  outside  of  official  schools 
and  schoolmen.  Narrow  humanism  held  sway  in  educa- 
tion for  nearly  three  centuries,  but  not  without  protest 
and  opposition.  In  whatever  respects  its  opponents  dif- 
fered they  all  agreed  upon  one  fundamental  principle, 
viz.,  that  education  should  deal  with  the  realities  of  the 
present  life  and  prepare  young  men  and  women  for  its 
concrete  duties.  The  prevailing  education  was  one  of 
books  and  words,  not  one  of  things  and  ideas.  It  exalted 
the  pupil's  memory  and  made  him  dependent,  whereas 
he  needed  to  have  his  judgment  and  reason  developed  in 
order  to  meet  courageously  the  exigencies  of  a  changing 
environment. 

Classes  of  Realists. — What  reforms  were  necessary  in 
order  to  organize  education  as  a  preparation  for  actual 
living  in  contact  with  the  realities  of  life?  It  is  in  the 
answer  to  this  question  that  the  realists  differ.  Some, 
like  Rabelais  and  Milton,  wished  merely  to  hark  back  to 
the  position  of  the  early  Renaissance  scholars,  viz.,  to 
study  the  classical  literature  for  its  content,  not  its  form, 
to  emphasize  its  literature,  not  its  language.  Realities 
to  them  meant  ideas,  and  the  best  ideas  ever  conceived  by 

157 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  human  mind  were  to  be  found  in  the  classical  litera- 
tures.    These  men  have  been  called  "  humanistic  real- 

>ists."  Others,  like  Montaigne  and  Locke,  maintained 
that  the  only  way  to  know  the  realities  of  life  was  by 
actual  intercourse  with  men  in  society.  Education,  there- 
fore, should  be  practical  and  aim  to  prepare  the  youth 
for  social  living.  Modern  foreign  languages  to  enable 
him  to  travel  and  secure  a  wide  experience  should  be 
emphasized  instead  of  ancient  languages ;  social  subjects 
like  history  and  politics  to  develop  a  sounder  judgment, 
rather  than  grammar  and  rhetoric.  These  men  have  been 
called  by  Professor  Monroe  "social  realists."  A  third 
group  reacted  against  the  prevailing  education  more  vio- 
lently than  either  of  the  others.  They  demanded  a  new 

>  content  and  a  new  method  in  education,  viz.,  the  study  of 
things,  especially  of  nature,  and  the  inductive  method. 
The  only  realities  are  things  with  which  one  comes  into 
contact  thru  the  senses.  Men  like  Bacon  and  Come- 
nius  have  generally  been  called  "sense-realists,"  and 
with  them  we  have  the  beginning  of  modern  science. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  studying  realism  in  education 
we  are  studying  men,  not  schools  nor  systems  of  schools. 
The  prevailing  methods  of  education  were  too  deeply 
intrenched  to  be  affected  by  the  principles  of  these  "in- 
novators," as  they  were  called.  Most  of  them  were  not 
engaged  in  school  work,  but  were  writers.  Their  books 
or  pamphlets  against  the  prevailing  education  were  often 
merely  side  issues  in  lives  devoted  to  other  affairs,  tho 
their  detachment  enabled  them  to  see  its  absurdities 
better  than  those  engaged  in  its  daily  routine.  Their 
principles  had  to  wait  for  generations  and  in  some  cases 
for  several  centuries  before  they  were  realized.  It  is 
sometimes  difficult  to  classify  an  innovator,  because  he 
partakes  of  the  characteristics  of  more  than  one  group ; 

158 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

in  fact  he  is  placed  in  one  group  rather  than  another  as 
a  matter  of  emphasis. 

A.     HTTMANISTIC  KEALISM 

The  ideal  of  the  men  of  the  early  Renaissance  was 
to  reestablish  Rome  on  earth.  Being  Italian  they  had 
a  strong  national  pride  in  ancient  Roman  history.  The 
humanistic  realists  wanted  to  understand  human  society 
and  its  institutions,  nature  and  man's  reactions  to  nature, 
so  that  the  individual  might  be  properly  adjusted  to  the 
environment  in  which  he  was  going  to  live.  But  this 
knowledge  in  the  domain  of  thought  and  of  action  could 
be  gained  only  thru  a  study  of  the  classical  litera- 
ture. Whether  one  wished  to  study  literature,  phi- 
losophy, science,  agriculture,  architecture,  or  medicine, 
he  must  turn  to  the  ancient  authors  upon  those  subjects. 
The  education  of  the  humanistic  realist,  therefore,  was 
just  as  bookish  as  that  which  he  opposed,  but  his  was  an 
intelligent  use  of  books  to  get  at  their  meaning,  not  pri- 
marily to  study  their  structure  and  style.  This  was  the 
view  of  the  more  thoughtful  of  those  who  believed  that 
the  classical  languages  and  literatures  were  the  sole 
means  to  an  education.  Tho  represented  early  in 
such  works  as  the  "Gargantua  and  Pantagruel"  of 
Rabelais  (1483-1553),  it  can  probably  be  understood 
best  by  a  brief  study  of  a  later  representative,  John  Mil- 
ton (1608-1674). 

Milton's  "Tractate  on  Education." — Milton's  definition 
of  education,  "that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly, 
skilfully,  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  pri- 
vate and  public,  of  peace  and  war,"  sufficiently  indicates 
his  belief  that  education  must  prepare  for  actual  living 
in  a  real  world.  To  do  this  it  must  give  a  knowledge 

159 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  the  thoughts  of  the  ancients  upon  the  various  activi- 
ties in  which  men  engage.  Hence  the  years  spent  by  boys 
in  formal  grammar,  and  later  in  acquiring  elegant  and 
showy  information,  are  wasted.  Milton,  not  satisfied  that 
a  student  shall  know  the  content  of  the  classical  litera- 
ture, gives  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  Syriac,  and  Italian  a  place 
in  his  curriculum.  Moreover,  he  demands  that  practi- 
cally all  the  natural  and  social  sciences,  applied  mathe- 
matics, philosophy,  in  fact  the  whole  gamut  of  learn- 
ing be  studied.  But  all  these  subjects  are  to  be 
studied  out  of  books  and,  moreover,  out  of  books  in 
foreign  languages  and  chiefly  in  the  classical  tongues. 
Milton  provides  a  curriculum  fit  only  for  little  Miltons. 
He  reacted  not  only  against  the  content  of  the  prevailing 
education,  but  also  against  its  organization.  He  sug- 
gested that  the  entire  education  of  a  boy  from  twelve  to 
twenty-one  be  given  in  an  academy  instead  of  being 
divided  between  the  secondary  school  and  the  university. 
Great  care  is  to  be  given  to  his  moral  and  religious,  as 
well  as  to  his  intellectual  training,  and  a  fine  course  of 
exercises  is  described  for  the  boy's  physical  welfare.  The 
scheme  of  education  described  in  the  "Tractate  on  Edu- 
cation" is  purely  ideal.  It  is  of  little  service  to  the 
schoolmaster  and  had  practically  no  influence.  It  has 
been  mentioned  to  give  an  idea  of  the  conception  of 
education  which  the  humanistic  realists  advocated. 

B.     SOCIAL  REALISM 

The  social  realists  were  men  of  affairs,  interested  in  the 
proper  education  of  the  young  aristocrat  who  would  in 
all  probability  participate  in  public  life.  They  were  not 
likely  to  view  with  favor  the  prevailing  education,  char- 
acterized by  so  much  pedantry  and  formalism,  and 

160 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

divorced  from  practical  affairs.  They  had  little  sym- 
pathy even  with  the  humanistic  realists,  who,  they  con- 
sidered, aimed  to  prepare  young  men  for  the  life  of  the 
past.  Of  all  the  realists  they  placed  the  greatest  em- 
phasis  upon  individualism.  They  preferred  the  educa- 
tion of  the  individual  by  a  tutor  to  group  training  in 
schools.  They  had  in  view  individual  success  as  the 
aim  to  be  sought  and  hence  demanded  a  practical  and 
utilitarian  guide  in  the  choice  of  subject  matter  and 
of  method.  They  insisted  that  the  training  of  the  prac- 
tical judgment,  not  the  cramming  of  the  memory,  would 
best  enable  the  individual  to  be  efficient  and  successful 
in  life.  Only  sufficient  learning  was  necessary  to  assist 
in  attaining  these  ends  and  to  enable  the  individual 
wisely  to  enjoy  his  leisure  hours.  Above  all,  the  educa- 
tion of  the  "man -of  the  world"  could  best  be  secured 
thru  travel,  for  by  means  of  travel  one  is  brought  into 
direct  contact  with  people  and  their  activities,  and  that 
is  the  kind  of  experience  which  is  most  worth  while.  Of 
all  the  writers  who  held  this  point  of  view,  the  most  rep- 
presentative  was  Michael  de  Montaigne  (1533-1592). 

Character  of  Montaigne. — Montaigne's  own  education 
was  carefully  supervised  by  his  father.  He  was  taught 
to  speak  Latin  before  French  and  was  sent  at  an  early 
age  to  the  College  de  Guyenne  at  Bordeaux.  This  insti- 
tution was  one  of  the  first  fruits  of  the  Renaissance  move- 
ment in  France  and  had  maintained  a  fine  reputation 
as  a  seat  of  humanistic  learning.  As  Montaigne  reacted 
unfavorably  to  the  education  given  there,  he  naturally 
had  little  patience  with  what  was  done  in  the  abodes  of 
humanism  generally.  He  afterwards  studied  law  and 
held  a  number  of  public  offices,  being  twice  mayor  of 
Bordeaux.  But  he  early  retired  from  public  affairs  and 
led  a  life  of  leisure,  during  which  he  wrote  his  celebrated 

161 


THE  HISTORY  OP  EDUCATION 

" Essays."  Montaigne  was  essentially  a  skeptic  and 
Epicurean,  a  man  of  worldly  wisdom  and  tolerance  j  and 
tho  his  morality  is  essentially  utilitarian  and  perhaps 
even  materialistic,  he  is  a  most  lovable  figure  in  an  age 
of  bigotry,  pedantry,  and  general  intolerance. 

His  Educational  Essays. — Montaigne  wrote  essays  on 
a  great  variety  of  subjects,  but  his  educational  opinions 
are  found  chiefly  in  two,  "Pedantry"  and  "The  Educa- 
tion of  Children" — especially  in  the  latter.  Holding  the 
view  that  education  is  to  prepare  the  individual  for  the 
practical  affairs  of  real  life,  he  has  only  scorn  for  the 
belief  that  the  mere  study  of  books  will  be  adequate. 
Thereby  the  individual  obtains  a  knowledge  of  words, 
not  "things" — by  which,  like  all  social  realists,  he  meant 
ideas.  Ideas  are  gotten  thru  experience  with  others, 
therefore  the  boy  must  come  in  contact  with  others  first 
in  his  own  country,  then  by  travel  in  other  countries; 
and  for  the  latter  purpose  he  must  study  modern  foreign 
languages.  He  should  profit,  moreover,  by  the  experi- 
ence of  others;  therefore  Montaigne  places  great  stress 
upon  the  study  of  history,  which  contains  the  experi- 
ence of  others,  and  should  be  taught  as  the  philosophy 
of  human  conduct.  In  these  ways  a  young  man  will  ac- 
cumulate real  knowledge  and  wisdom,  not  merely  in- 
formation ;  and  he  will  find  discipline  of  the  judgment, 
the  mental  power,  of  most  value  and  use  in  life.  How 
far  better  is  this  than  the  method  then  prevailing,  of 
cramming  the  memory  with  mere  verbiage !  "To  know 
by  heart  only,"  says  Montaigne,  "is  not  to  know  at  all." 
1 '  A  boy  should  not  so  much  memorize  his  lesson  as  prac- 
tice it."  And  all  his  learning  should  be  done  under 
pleasant  conditions,  not  under  terror,  and  with  proper 
provision  for  the  care  and  training  of  his  body.  It  can 
be  readily  understood  that  an  educational  ideal  so  far 

162 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

removed  from  that  which  prevailed  in  his  day  would 
have  little  influence  upon  educational  institutions.  But 
upon  the  class  for  whom  he  wrote  and  upon  succeeding 
thinkers,  e.  g.,  Locke  and  Rousseau,  Montaigne's  influ- 
ence was  undoubted. 

Institutional  Results  of  Social  and  Humanistic  Realism. 
— Tho  the  views  of  education  expounded  by  human- 
istic and  social  realists  had  little  influence  upon  the  con- 
duct of  humanistic  schools  either  in  Protestant  or  Cath- 
olic countries,  those  views  in  conjunction  with  other  in- 
fluences did  result  in  the  founding  of  new  institutions. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  French  court 
life  began  to  have  a  profound  influence  upon  the  German 
nobility,  and  the  desire  to  know  the  French  language, 
literature,  and  ways  of  life  spread  rapidly.  This,  com- 
bined with  the  desire  to  have  a  more  practical  education 
that  would  prepare  for  civil  and  military  affairs,  led  in 
Germany  to  the  foundation  of  institutions  known  as  Rit- 
terakademien,  i.  e.,  schools  for  nobles.  Physical  train- 
ing and  accomplishments,  modern  languages,  particularly 
French,  political  history  and  geography,  mathematics, 
and  military  science,  formed  the  main  part  of  the  work. 
Latin  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  religion  were  not  wholly 
neglected,  but  they  received  only  secondary  considera- 
tion. After  the  Thirty  Years'  War  there  was  a  great 
extension  of  these  institutions  in  Germany  and,  tho 
they  were  afterwards  absorbed  into  the  Gymnasium  sys- 
tem, for  nearly  a  century  they  were  the  most  influential 
educational  institutions  in  the  country.  Similar  insti- 
tutions were  established  by  Richelieu  in  France,  but 
they  never  had  the  same  influence  there  as  had  the  Eit- 
terakademien  in  Germany. 

The  English  Academy. — But  it  was  in  England  that 
humanistic  and  social  realism  resulted  in  the  most  dis- 

163 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


tinctive  institutions.  When  the  Act  of  Uniformity  was 
passed  by  Parliament  in  1662,  more  than  two  thousand 
nonconformist  clergymen  were  thrown  out  of  their  .liv- 
ings, and  the  universities  and  secondary  schools  were 
closed  to  dissenters.  Some  of  these  ministers  of  neces- 
sity, and  others  by  choice,  turned  to  teaching  to  support 
themselves;  they  found  a  large  constituency  in  the  chil- 
dren of  the  dissenters.  Influenced  in  all  probability  by 
the  description  of  the  "Academy"  in  Milton's  "Trac- 
tate, ' '  the  schools  established  to  meet  the  new  need  were 
given  that  name.  Because  the  first  necessity  was  the 
education  of  ministers  for  the  nonconformist  churches, 
Latin  and  Greek  became  the  backbone  of  the  curriculum ; 
but  modern  languages  were  also  taught  and  the  medium 
of  all  instruction  was  English.  Moreover,  history,  geog- 
raphy, mathematics,  and  natural  philosophy  had  a  place 
beside  rhetoric,  logic,  and  metaphysics.  Despite  the 
intensely  religious  atmosphere  of  these  schools,  their 
curricula  and  methods  were  determined  by  a  pur- 
7  pose  to  make  education  a  practical  preparation  for  real 
living. 

The  Academy  in  America. — The  academy  eventually 
found  its  way  into  the  American  colonies.  From  almost 
the  very  beginning  the  humanistic  grammar  school  in 
many  seaport  towns  had  added  practical  subjects  to  the 
curriculum.  But  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  that  an  effort  was  made  to  break  almost 
completely  with  the  prevailing  humanistic  education  by 
the  establishment  of  an  institution  denominated  an  acad- 
emy. In  1751  there  was  founded  at  Philadelphia,  as 
the  result  of  the  suggestion  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  "The 
Academy  and  Charitable  School  of  Pennsylvania,"  which 
later  developed  into  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  So 
desirous  was  Franklin  of  establishing  a  school  that  would 

164 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

prepare  for  life — especially  for  life  in  a  new  country— 
and  not  merely  for  college,  that  he  at  first  wished  to 
exclude  all  foreign  languages  from  the  curriculum.  Tho 
this  was  not  done,  the  emphasis  was  placed  upon  the 
teaching  of  history,  geography,  drawing,  mathematics, 
the  natural  sciences,  and  English  grammar  and  composi- 
tion. In  fact,  Franklin 's  Academy  was  more  the  product 
of  sense-realism  than  of  either  humanistic  or  social  real- 
ism. Similar  institutions  were  founded,  especially  in 
New  England ;  and  by  the  close  of  the  century  the  acad- 
emies were  rapidly  displacing  the  Latin  grammar  schools 
as  the  secondary  schools  of  the  country.  We  shall  re- 
turn to  them  later  when  discussing  the  development  of 
education  in  the  United  States. 


C.     SENSE-REALISM 

Scientific  Discoveries  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. — One 
of  the  first  fruits  of  the  early  Renaissance  movement 
was  the  new  attitude  taken  by  men  toward  nature,  the 
delight  in  its  beauty,  the  joy  of  living  in  it,  the  desire 
to  understand  it.  This  interest  in  nature  early  had  such 
results  as  the  heliocentric  theory  of  the  solar  system 
of  Copernicus,  the  explanation  of  the  motions  of  the 
planets  by  Kepler,  and  the  discovery  by  Galileo  of  new 
celestial  phenomena  by  means  of  the  telescope  he  had 
invented.  The  wonder  is  that  more  rapid  progress  had 
not  been  made ;  but  the  explanation  of  that  fact  is  given 
in  the  overshadowing  place  of  religion  in  the  life  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  Before  the  Reformation  the 
Church  was  not  friendly  to  the  exposition  of  new  ideas 
concerning  nature  that  did  not  harmonize  with  Aristotle, 
and  after  it  men's  time  and  thought  were  given  almost 
wholly  to  disputes  over  matters  of  religious  belief. 

165 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Nevertheless,  in  the  seventeenth  century  such  a  remark- 
able series  of  discoveries  in  science  was  made  as  seriously 
to  affect  the  ecclesiastical  control  of  men 's  opinions  in  the 
domain  of  natural  phenomena.  To  understand  the  im- 
mense advance  made  in  the  domain  of  natural  science 
during  the  seventeenth  century,  one  has  but  to  enu- 
merate Napier's  logarithms,  Descartes'  analytical  geom- 
etry, Newton's  law  of  gravitation,  Leibnitz'  calculus, 
Torricelli's  barometer,  Boyle's  theories  of  the  vacuum 
and  of  gases,  Harvey's  theory  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  Malpighi's  use  of  the  compound  microscope.  In 
fact,  just  as  the  fifteenth  century  brought  with  it  a  great 
literary  revival  and  the  sixteenth  a  great  religious  re- 
vival, so  the  seventeenth  brought  a  great  scientific  re- 
vival. It  was  in  reality  the  final  stage  of  the  Renais- 
sance movement.  These  discoveries  did  not  result  from 
the  reading  of  books,  but  from  the  deliberate  applica- 
tion of  men 's  powers  of  observation  to  the  phenomena  of 
nature.  Moreover,  some  of  them  were  in  flat  contradic- 
tion to  the  dicta  of  the  Greek  authorities  who  had  been 
venerated  for  centuries.  They  were  the  fruit  of  the 
determination  of  men  to  think  for  themselves,  to  rely 
upon  their  own  reason,  and  to  use  their  own  judgment. 
It  can  readily  be  understood  that  knowledge,  and  a 
method  of  securing  it  which  widened  men's  mental  hori- 
zon and  resulted  in  real  advancement  of  human  welfare, 
would  not  lack  advocates  demanding  for  them  places 
in  the  activities  of  the  school.  And  tho  this  early 
scientific  movement  had  very  little  influence  upon  the 
schools  of  the  time,  the  educational  writings  in  which 
it  was  set  forth  secured  its  very  slow  but  gradual  intro- 
duction into  school  practice. 

Fundamental   Principles   of  the   Sense-Realists. — Like 
the  earlier  realists,  whose  views  have  already  been  de- 

166 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

scribed,  the  sense-realists  condemned  the  following  prac- 
tices that  then  prevailed : 

1.  The  excessive  emphasis  upon  the  literary  element 
in  education ; 

2.  The  cramming  of  the  memory  with  material  that 
was  not  understood; 

3.  The  divorce  of  school  work  from  the  practical  needs 
of  daily  life ; 

4.  The  harsh  discipline,  based  upon  the  rod,  which 
made  the  school  a  place  of  gloom  and  even  of  terror ; 

5.  The  neglect  of  the  body  and  of  the  physical  wel- 
fare of  the  individual. 

But,  in  addition  to  opposing  these  wrong  practices, 
the  sense-realists  advocated  others  which  make  their 
movement  a  far  more  important  and  emphatic  reaction 
against  the  prevailing  narrow  humanism.  Among  them 
were  the  following: 

1.  That  education  should  conform  to  nature,  and  that 
the  laws  upon  which  it  should  be  based  could  be  discov- 
ered in  nature.     They  were  not  clear  themselves  as  to 
what  this  implied;  and  they  certainly  had  very  little 
understanding  of  the  development  of  the  child  mind. 

2.  That  the  proper  order  of  procedure  in  teaching  is 
things,  ideas,  words;  and  this  meant  that  education  is 
primarily    a    training    in    sense-perception    thru    con- 
tact with  objective  material. 

3.  That  instruction,  to  be  understood,  must  be  in  the 
vernacular  tongue. 

4.  That  an  education  based  upon  the  perception  of 
natural  objects  must  have  a  new  method,  viz.,  the  induc- 
tive method. 

5.  That  by  the  proper  application  of  this  method  and 
by  the  correct  organization  of  material  the  quantity  of 
knowledge  to  be  absorbed  by  the  individual  was  much 

167 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  be  increased.  This  led  to  an  excessive  emphasis  upon 
the  place  and  value  of  knowledge  in  life. 

In  .the  application  of  these  principles — for  they  were 
nearly  all  applied  in  school  work — the  enthusiastic  sense- 
realists  often  honored  them  more  in  the  breach  than 
in  the  observance,  and  gave  ample  opportunity  for  hos- 
tile criticism.  But  most  of  their  principles — tho  they 
knew  it  not — were  in  harmony  with  a  sound  child  psy- 
chology and,  therefore,  were  destined  to  be  realized  in 
the  course  of  time. 

Richard  Mulcaster  (1546-1611). — The  man  who  pro- 
vided a  philosophic  basis  for  what  is  known  as  the  sense- 
realistic  movement  was  undoubtedly  Francis  Bacon,  and 
he  is  often  referred  to  as  the  first  sense-realist.  But  a 
number  of  writers  who  preceded  him  maintained  the 
principles  of  the  sense-realists  in  part  and  unconsciously 
advocated  what  he  formulated  into  the  method  of  induc- 
tion. One  of  these,  Richard  Mulcaster,  showed  such  re- 
markable prevision  that  his  work  demands  a  brief  study. 
That  he  should  have  advocated  the  radical  views  he  did 
is  all  the  more  remarkable  when  one  remembers  that  he 
was  successively  the  headmaster  of  the  Merchant  Tay- 
lors' School  and  of  St.  Paul's,  two  of  the  most  famous 
humanistic  schools  of  England.  Yet  in  his  two  books, 
the  * '  Elementarie ' '  and  the  ' '  Positions, ' '  he  insisted  that 
education  should  be  according  to  nature,  that  is,  should 
secure  the  expression  of  childish  tendencies  and  not  aim 
at  their  repression ;  that  the  first  consideration  in  educa- 
tion is  the  care  and  training  of  the  body ;  that  elementary 
education  is  worthy  of  as  much  consideration  as  higher ; 
that  it  should  be  for  girls  as  well  as  boys ;  that  the  study 
of  the  vernacular  is  far  more  important  than  the  study 
of  Latin  or  of  any  other  language ;  that  teachers  require 
university  training  as  much  as  lawyers,  physicians,  or 

168 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

ministers.  It  is  evident  how  much  more  radical  are 
Mulcaster's  positions  than  those  of  any  other  writer 
considered  so  far,  and  why  some  of  them  waited  until  the 
nineteenth  century  for  fulfillment. 

Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626).— Nevertheless,  Mulcaster 
did  not  lay  much  stress  upon  what  is  the  most  distin- 
guishing feature  of  the  sense-realists,  viz.,  that  education 
must  be  based  upon  a  training  of  the  senses  by  means  of 
the  study  of  the^  objects  antf"  ghehomena  oY~nature. 
NeitKeTdld  Bacon,  who  had  comparatively  little  inter- 
est  in  education.  But  the  revolution  his  work  caused  in 
men's  ways  of  thinking  inspired  others  who  were  inter- 
ested in  education  to  base  their  educational  views  upon 
principles  he  formulated.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to 
consider  those  principles  before  studying  their  appli- 
cation to  education  by  his  followers. 

"The  New  Atlantis."— Bacon  had  been  carefully 
trained  in  the  education  of  the  day,  but  even  while  a 
student  at  Oxford  he  condemned  the  education  he  was 
receiving.  He  opposed  scholasticism  and  humanism  with 
equal  vehemence,  the  one  as  dealing  only  with  worthless 
speculation,  the  other  with  useless  verbiage,  and  both  as 
valueless  for  human  welfare.  Knowledge  that  cannot 
function_for_  the  advancement  of  the  human  race  is  not 
worth  having.  Bacon  lived  in  the  days  of  Utopias  and 
he  also  wrote  one,  "The  New  Atlantis. "  This  is  a  de- 
scription of  an  ideal  society,  in  which  there  dwell  peace 
and  contentment  among  the  inhabitants.  These  ideal 
conditions  resulted  from  an  investigation  of  nature,  the 
discovery  of  her  laws  and  the  harnessing  of  nature  to 
man's  needs  arid  purposes  by  the  invention  of  machines 
in  conformity  with  her  laws.  The  most  important  fea- 
ture of  ' '  The  New  Atlantis  "  is  ' '  Solomon 's  House, "  a  re- 
search institution  given  up  exclusively  to  the  scientific 

169 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

investigation  of  natural  phenomena.  "The  New  Atlan- 
tis" is  typical  of  what  should  exist  among  men  in  our 
own  society  ;  and  '  '  Solomon  's  House,  '  '  of  the  kind  of  uni- 
versity needed  for  the  realization  of  such  an  ideal. 

The  Baconian  Method.  —  Knowledge  of  nature,  then, 
is  the  only  real  and  fruitful  knowledge  ;  but  it  cannot  be 
obtained  by  the  syllogistic  reasoning  of  the  schoolmen  or 
by  the  use  of  the  deductive  logic,  which  was  supposed  to 
be  Aristotle  's  sole  method  of  reasoning.  In  the  *  '  Novum 
Organum"  Bacon  proposed  a  "new  method/'  namely, 
induction,  to  supersede  that  given  by  Aristotle  in  the 
(viz.,  deduction).  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 


method  formulated  by  Bacon  was  neither  a  new  method 
nor  the  true  inductive  method.  He  sneered  at  the  "an- 
ticipation of  nature"  whereby  an  investigator  frames  an 
hypothesis  to  explain  certain  facts  and  then  tests  the 
validity  of  his  hypothesis  by  comparison  with  other  facts. 
Yet  that  use  of  scientific  imagination  was  just  what  en- 
abled the  scientists  mentioned  in  a  previous  paragraph  to 
obtain  their  splendid  results.  Such  results  could  never 
have  been  secured  by  Bacon's  method,  which  can  be 
briefly  described  thus:  the  investigator  must  first  re- 
lieve himself  of  all  "idols,"  i.  e.,  prejudices;  then  as- 
semble the  materials  resulting  from  his  observations, 
and  draw  his  general  principle  from  a  comparison  of  the 
cases  where  a  certain  effect  took  place  and  where  it  did 
not.  Moreover,  Bacon  believed  that  anybody  who  fol- 
lowed his  method  would  arrive  at  the  true  conclusion  ;  no 
special  mental  power  was  needed.  In  fact,  some  of  the 
realists  were  so  enamored  of  the  Baconian  method  that 
they  maintained  that  by  its  proper  use  in  education  the 
individual  would  be  enabled  with  comparative  ease,  and 
in  much  less  time  than  was  supposed  possible,  to  obtain 
all  the  knowledge  that  was  to  be  had  (pansophia).  De- 

170 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

spite  the  fact  that  Bacon  did  not  discover  the  true  in- 
ductive method  of  reasoning  and  that  he  exaggerated  the 
results  to  be  obtained  by  the  application  of  his  own 
method,  his  eminent  position  in  the  social  and  political 
world  and  his  ability  to  present  his  ideas  attractively 
combined  to  give  his  writings  an  influence  which  went  far 
to  convince  men  that  not  reliance  upon  tradition  nor 
the  dicta  of  authorities,  but  careful  observation  and  ex- 
perimentation were  what  are  necessary  in  order  to  arrive 
at  an  understanding  of  the  truths  of  the  natural  and 
social  worlds. 

John  Amos  Comenius  (1592-1670). — Bacon  was  inter- 
ested in  the  subject  matter  of  knowledge,  not  in  how 
the  individual  acquires  it.  He  did  not  concern  himself 
with  the  psychological  significance  of  the  inductive 
method.  If  we  get  knowledge  with  certainty  only  by  in- 
duction, it  would  seem  to  follow  logically  that  we  ought 
to  teach  inductively.  But  the  educational  application 
of  his  method  Bacon  left  to  his  followers.  While  Come- 
nius was  not  the  first  of  these  to  attempt  a  realization 
of  Baconian  principles  in  teaching,  he  was  the  most  influ- 
ential and  successful,  and  is  by  far  the  best  representa- 
tive of  the  sense-realistic  movement.  Comenius  was  not 
only  the  greatest  educator  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  one  of  the  greatest  educators  of  all  centuries;  and 
this  is  true  whether  we  regard  him  as  a  practical  teacher 
and  administrator,  a  writer  of  textbooks,  or  a  theorizer 
on  educational  principles.  He  was  born  in  Moravia, 
studied  for  the  ministry,  and  afterwards  became  the  last 
bishop  of  the  Moravian  Church.  Owing  to  the  death  of 
his  parents  when  he  was  quite  young,  his  early  education 
was  neglected,  and  he  did  not  enter  the  Latin  school  until 
he  was  nearly  seventeen,  mature  enough  to  understand 
the  badness  of  the  method  used  in  teaching  Latin.  Come- 

171 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

nius'  first  interest  in  life  was  religious,  and  his  strength 
and  energy  were  largely  given  to  caring  for  his  perse- 
cuted coreligionists,  who  had  been  driven  from  their 
native  land  and  were  scattered  everywhere  thruout 
Protestant  Europe.  His  religious  work,  however, 
brought  him  among  men  who  were  interested  in  educa- 
tion and  who  to  some  extent  influenced  his  educational 
views.  His  second  interest  was  philosophy,  and  this 
prompted  him  to  attempt  the  complete  organization  of 
human  knowledge  into  an  encyclopedic  form  (panso- 
phism) .  This  had  been  done  by  some  of  the  great  school- 
men, but  with  Comenius  it  was  to  be  based  upon  Bacon- 
ian principles  and  to  result  from  a  study  of  the  familiar 
facts  and  phenomena  about  one,  which  were  to  be  ar- 
ranged according  to  general  laws.  This  done,  the  in- 
vestigator could  proceed  to  the  unfamiliar  and  unknown, 
until  he  had  covered  the  whole  ground  of  knowledge, 
each  part  of  which  would  find  its  natural  place  in  the 
whole  and  lead  inevitably  to  the  next.  The  acquisition  of 
this  knowledge  was  for  the  purpose  of  functioning  for 
social  welfare  and  progress.  Comenius'  third  interest 
was  in  the  reform  of  education,  and  it  was  in  this  he 
achieved  something  of  permanent  value.  In  the  history 
of  education  Comenius  is  really  a  transition  figure  from 
those  who  subordinated  everything  in  education  to  re- 
ligion to  those  like  Locke  and  Rousseau,  who  considered 
religion  merely  one  element  in  a  secularized  system. 

The  "Great  Didactic"  (1657).— Tho  Comenius  wrote 
a  great  many  books  and  pamphlets  on  education, 
the  principles  which  he  advocates  are  best  explained  in 
his  treatise  on  the  philosophy  of  education,  the  "Great 
Didactic."  This  theoretical  exposition  of  his  beliefs  he 
wrote  in  his  early  manhood,  and  his  later  school  activities 
are  but  an  application  of  the  ideas  set  forth  in  it.  The 

172 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

book  consists  of  thirty-three  chapters,  covering  the  whole 
ground  of  education :  its  aim,  purpose,  proper  organiza- 
tion, content  of  study,  methods  of  teaching,  discipline, 
textbooks.  In  fact,  no  topic  of  importance  is  omitted 
from  consideration.  It  is  a  splendid  summing  up  of  the 
views  of  the  realists,  and  is  characterized  by  so  much 
sanity  and  wisdom  that  it  can  be  profitably  studied  by 
the  student  of  education  today.  But  the  teachers  of 
Comenius'  generation  were  interested  in  the  teaching  of 
Latin;  hence,  while  his  Latin  textbooks  achieved  an  im- 
mense popularity,  the  '  '  Great  Didactic, ' '  one  of  the  few 
really  excellent  treatises  on  education,  received  practical- 
ly no  recognition.  It  remained  in  oblivion  until  brought 
to  light  by  the  German  educators  of  the  mid-nineteenth 
century.  Then  it  was  discovered  that  many  of  the  sound 
principles  of  education  which  had  been  adopted  by  the 
reformers  of  the  late  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  cen- 
turies had  already  been  formulated  by  Comenius  in  the 
seventeenth.  A  very  brief  idea  of  the  contents  of  the 
*  *  Great  Didactic ' '  is  given  in  the  exposition  of  his  views 
which  follows : 

The  meaning,  content,  and  method  of  education. — The 
religious  aim  of  education  dominated  with  Comenius. 
Education  is  to  prepare  the  individual  for  eternal  happi- 
ness with  God  by  means  of  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
virtue,  and  piety.  In  the  exposition  of  this  aim  the 
pansophic  fallacy  of  overemphasis  upon  the  value  and 
place  of  knowledge  in  human  life  is  evident.  Eternal 
happiness  with  God  is  the  reward  of  right  living,  and 
that  in  turn  is  the  result  of  knowing  how  to  live  in  the 
world  of  nature  and  society.  Hence  the  content  of 
education  must  be  primarily  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  and 
phenomena  of  nature.  It  is  here  that  Comenius  was  most 
successful  in  carrying  out  Baconian  principles,  for  he 

173 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

filled  his  textbooks  with  material  from  nature.  He  was 
too  much  of  a  theologian,  however,  to  appreciate  fully  or 
to  apply  properly  the  inductive  method.  He  states  that 
we  get  knowledge  by  means  of  the  senses,  reason,  and 
divine  revelation;  and  even  sometimes  proves  a  conten- 
tion by  a  quotation  from  Scripture.  While  he  insists 
that  teaching  shall  be  * '  according  to  nature, ' '  he  seldom 
means  according  to  the  method  of  experiment,  but  of  an- 
alogy ;  and  he  constantly  finds  the  clew  for  the  teacher 's 
method  in  the  bird,  the  chick,  the  seed.  But  tho 
his  psychology  was  defective,  he  was  the  first  to  apply 
the  new  method  successfully  to  the  practical  problems 
of  classroom  teaching,  and  his  textbooks  owe  their  great 
success  to  the  fact  that  they  were  written  in  accordance 
with  it. 

Organization  of  Education. — Comenius  demanded  that 
all  persons,  boys  and  girls,  rich  and  poor,  be  educated 
not  merely  so  that  they  might  read  the  Bible,  but  that 
they  might  really  develop  as  rational  beings  created  in 
the  image  of  God.  This  education  of  the  individual  was 
to  be  'divided  into  four  periods  of  six  years  each.  (1)  In 
the  first  of  these  the  child  should  be  taught  in  the  school 
of  the  mother's  knee,  i.  e.,  the  home.  During  this 
period  he  should  not  only  be  cared  for  physically  and 
morally,  but  should  learn  facts  of  nature  and  geography, 
without  books.  (2)  The  second  period  was  that  of  the 
vernacular  school,  which  was  to  be  free  and  compulsory 
for  all.  The  work  of  the  school  was  to  be  conducted  en- 
tirely in  the  vernacular  tongue  and  to  include  material 
from  all  kinds  of  human  experiences,  so  that  not  only 
religion  and  the  three  R  's  but  history,  geography,  draw- 
ing, and  mechanical  arts  should  find  a  place.  (3)  The 
third  period  was  that  of  the  Latin  school,  the  work  of 
which  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Gymnasium,  but  was  to 

174 


KEACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

include,  in  addition  to  languages,  science  and  the  seven 
liberal  arts.  Because  of  the  training  given  in  the  ver- 
nacular school  and  because  of  the  better  method  of  teach- 
ing languages  adopted,  the  same  ground  could  be  cov- 
ered in  six  years  for  which  nine  was  needed  in  the  Gym- 
nasium. (4)  The  last  period  was  devoted  to  the  uni- 
versity, to  which  admission  should  be  granted  upon  ex- 
amination, so  that  only  men  of  ability  would  attend. 
Provision  should  be  made  for  every  branch  of  human 
knowledge,  so  that  a  student  would  be  enabled  to  study 
not  only  his  profession  but  other  subjects  in  which  he 
might  be  interested.  Beyond  the  university,  which  was 
to  be  a  teaching  institution,  there  should  also  be  a  "  di- 
dactic college ' '  devoted  to  scientific  research.  Comenius, 
therefore,  provided  an  educational  ladder  which  was  in 
a  way  a  suggestion  of  what  has  been  worked  out  in 
America  more  than  two  centuries  later. 

Comenius'  Latin  Texts. — Comenius  was  known  to  his 
own  generation  as  the  man  who  had  invented  a  new  and 
better  method  of  teaching  Latin,  and  it  was  in  his  Latin 
textbooks  that  he  was  most  successful  in  applying  the 
principles  of  the  sense-realists.  He  objected  strongly  to 
the  way  Latin  was  then  taught,  i.  e.,  by  beginning  with 
grammar  and  using  texts  which  had  no  natural  interest 
for  the  child  and  made  no  attempt  at  grading  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  material  presented.  To  overcome  these  ob- 
stacles he  wrote  the  "  Janua  Linguarum  Reserata"  (The 
Gate  of  Languages  Unlocked) .  The  idea  underlying  this 
was  to  use  the  Latin  names  of  common  and  familiar  ob- 
jects and  arrange  them  into  sentences  increasing  in  diffi- 
culty, but  arranged  so  as  to  give  a  clear  knowledge  of 
some  topic.  There  were  one  hundred  chapters  of  little 
more  than  a  page  each,  covering  a  wide  variety  of  sub- 
jects. The  Latin  was  given  on  one  side  of  the  page  and 

175 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  vernacular  on  the  other,  so  that  the  child  could  get 
the  Latin  vocabulary  by  comparison  and  so  that  a  knowl- 
edge of  grammar  could  be  developed  inductively  by  the 
teacher.  The  two  chief  defects  of  the  book  were  that  he 
violated  a  fundamental  principle  of  language  teaching  by 
using  each  word  but  once — there  were  eight  thousand 
different  Latin  words  in  the  "  Janua" — and  he  indulged 
in  his  pansophic  fallacy  of  crowding  in  too  much  knowl- 
edge. Nevertheless,  the  book  was  such  a  remarkable  im- 
provement upon  any  text  then  in  use  that  in  a  short  time 
it  was  translated  into  sixteen  different  languages  and  be- 
came the  standard  Latin  primer  in  general  use.  Come- 
nius  was  encouraged  thereby  to  write  several  other  text- 
books, one  of  which  must  be  briefly  considered  because 
of  its  immense  popularity  and  its  importance  in  the  his- 
tory of  school  textbooks.  This  was  the  "Orbis  Pictus" 
(The  World  in  Pictures),  the  first  illustrated  textbook 
for  children.  It  was  an  adaptation  of  the  " Janua," 
but  at  the  head  of  each  chapter  there  was  a  picture  to 
represent  the  text,  each  part  of  which  was  numbered  to 
correspond  to  the  words  in  the  text.  This  was  an  at- 
tempt to  introduce  the  principles  of  dealing  with  things 
by  means  of  pictures,  of  arousing  interest  in  the  subject 
matter,  and  applying  comparison  and  inference,  the  very 
basis  of  induction.  The  "Orbis  Pietus"  was  even  more 
popular  than  the  "  Janua, "  and  was  used  not  only  as 
the  beginning  text  for  the  study  of  Latin,  but  also  as 
a  means  of  learning  to  read  the  vernacular.  Comenius 
maintained  that  by  the  use  of  such  textbooks  and  of  the 
inductive  method  of  teaching,  the  school  would  become  a 
place  of  joy  instead  of  gloom,  and  interest  in  work  would 
supersede  the  rod  as  a  means  of  discipline. 

Influence  of  Comenius. — The  Latin  textbooks  of  Co- 
menius continued  to  be  thumbed  by  the  boys  of  Europe 

176 


The  Taflolr. 


LXIV. 


Sartor. 


7/fe  Tailor,  i. 


it  together  with 
le  Thread^-' 


Pi-effing-tron,  5, 
And  /bit  ht  makttb 
Coats,  6. 
*uitti*  Plaits.  7. 


•w//^  Laces,  9, 

Cloaks,  to. 
*tv/>  A  ^  Cape,  x  i  . 
4  W  Sleeve  Coats,   12* 

Doubleie,  23. 
V*KW£  Button^,  24* 
flW  Cuffs,  if. 

Breeches,  16. 
J*mnim$t  with  Ribbons,  17. 

Stockings,  18. 

Glares,  19. 


difcindit  Pan 
confuitquc  Act  &  Filo 


PoAea  comphnat  $*/«r«* 
trramenlOt  5. 
Sicquc  conficit 
,   6. 


in  cjuibus  infra  eft  Fim6ri#& 
cum  Infitit,  9* 

xo.. 

iot    II. 


1  3. 

14. 


Calt&u, 

ajiouandocum  Limai/eis,  17, 
Tt hi  Alia*  1 8. 
Chirotbcias*  29. 


A  PAGE  FBOM  THE  "OEBIS  PICTUS"  OF  COMENIUS. 


177 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

long  after  his  death,  but  except  for  that  he  had  little 
influence  on  the  schools  of  his  own  day  and  his  name 
became  almost  forgotten.  Humanism  was  too  strongly 
intrenched  to  be  ousted  by  realism.  But  altho  his 
principles  were  not  realized  in  practice,  his  writings  indi- 
cate the  turn  in  the  tide  from  the  control  of  religion  in 
education  to  that  of  secular  interests.  No  thinker  in 
education  after  him  will  strike  the  religious  as  the  domi-' 
nant  note.  And  with  him  the  movement  away  from 
authority  and  toward  freedom  made  a  great  advance. 

Spread  of  Sense-Realism. — Tho  the  progress  of  sense- 
realism  was  slow  it  was  nevertheless  steady,  and  dur- 
ing the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  use 
of  the  vernacular  in  the  elementary  schools  and  the  addi- 
tion of  some  practical  subjects  to  the  curriculum  kept 
apace.  But  the  movement  made  greater  headway  in 
secondary  education.  This  was  due  chiefly  to  the  work 
of  Herman  Francke  (16*63-1727)  and  the  pietists.  After 
the  Thirty  Years*  War  formalism  and  intolerance  among 
the  religious  sects  of  Germany  increased,  and  intellectual 
adherence  to  a  creed  became  even  more  than  before  the 
evidence  of  a  religious  life.  Against  this  the  pietistic 
movement  was  a  reaction,  as  it  was  also  against  the  ra- 
tionalism that  prevailed  in  the  circles  of  the  Ritterakade- 
mien.  To  realize  one's  religious  belief  in  acts,  and  not 
merely  to  conform  to  the  words  of  "a"  cree3,  was  the  es- 
sense  of  the  pietists'  faith.  Francke  had  been  appointed 
in  1692,  professor  of  Greek  and  Oriental  languages  at 
the  recently  established  University  of  Halle.  He  was 
shocked  at  the  ignorance  and  barbarism  of  the  poor  of 
the  town  and  soon  established  a  charity  school  for  poor 
children.  This  was  followed  in  succession  by  a  secondary 
school  for  wealthy  students,  to  which  bright  boys  from 
the  charity  school  were  admitted,  a  seminary  for  the 

178 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

training  of  teachers,  a  printing  establishment  for  the 
publication  of  books,  as  well  as  a  number  of  philan- 
thropic institutions,  such  as  an  orphan  asylum,  an  apoth- 
ecary shop  and  a  free  dining  hall  for  poor  students  of 
the  university.  In  the  vernacular  school,  in  addition  to 
the  elementary  studies,  history,  geography,  and  natural 
history  were  taught ;  in  the  secondary  school,  in  addition 
to  the  classics,  French,  history,  geography,  mathematics, 
drawing,  and  science,  pure  and  applied.  In  other  words 
there  was  being  realized  at  Halle  the  Comenian  ideal  of 
a  training  in  real  subjects  for  practical  life  under  relig- 
ious influences.  But  whereas  the  real  studies  in 
Francke's  ' ' Pedagogium "  (as  he  called  his  school)  were 
in  the  nature  of  a  relaxation  from  the  classics,  with  his 
pupil  Johann  Hecker  they  became  the  very  core  of  the 
Realsckule  which  the  latter  established  at  Berlin  in  1747. 
This  was  the  mother  of  the  Realschulen  which  were  grad- 
ually established  in  the  commercial  cities  of  Germany, 
and  which  have  since  been  incorporated  into  the  second- 
ary school  system  of  Germany  and  are  now  on  a  par 
with  the  Gymnasien  in  the  privilege  of  preparing  stu- 
dents for  the  universities. 

The  University  of  Halle  was  the  first  modern  univer- 
sity, and  has  continued  to  be  one  of  the  most  progressive 
of  the  German  universities.  It  was  the  first  European 
university  to  substitute  the  vernacular  for  Latin  as  the 
language  in  which  lectures  were  delivered.  It  rejected 
the  narrow  classical-theological  scholasticism  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  other  universities,  introduced  modern  sci- 
ence and  a  liberal  philosophy,  and  laid  the  basis  for 
the  "Lehr-  und  Lernfreiheit"  (freedom  of  teaching  and 
freedom  of  study)  which  afterwards  became  the  pride 
of  German  higher  education.  Exalting  the  place  of  hu- 
man reason  in  life,  it  gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  indi- 

179 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

vidual  freedom  and  a  corresponding  blow  to  the  undue 
emphasis  upon  authority  and  tradition. 

In  England  sense-realism  had  some  influence  in  the 
newly  established  academies  ;x  and  this  was  also  true  of 
those  that  sprang  up  in  America.  It  had  comparatively 
little  influence  upon  the  universities.  However,  the 
mathematical  and  scientific  work  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
(1669-1702),  who  held  a  professorship  at  Cambridge, 
gave  that  university  a  bias  in  favor  of  mathematics  and 
science  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  chairs  for 
those  subjects  in  the  following  century.  In  France  and 
the  Catholic  countries  generally,  where  the  Jesuits  were 
in  control  of  secondary  and  higher  education,  sense-real- 
ism made  little  progress. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  upon  Realism,  Bacon, 
Comenius,  Milton,  Montaigne,  etc. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chaps.  XXI-XXII,  XXVI,  XXX. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  II,  Chaps. 
XVII,  XVIII. 

MONROE,  P.  A  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  VIII. 

MONROE,  W.  S.  Comenius  and  the  Beginnings  of  Educa- 
tional Reform. 

QUICK,  R.  H.  Educational  Reformers.  Chaps.  VI,  VIII, 
IX,  X,  XII. 

PAULSEN,  F.    German  Education,    pp.  112-133. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Who  approached  more  nearly  the  Greco-Roman  ideal 
of  education,  Milton  or  Montaigne? 

*Seep.  163f. 

180 


REACTION  AGAINST  HUMANISM 

2.  What  value  for  educational  purposes  do  you  place  upon 
the  year  of  travel  which  is  customary  in  Germany,  known 
as  das  Wander jahr? 

3.  In  what  respects  does  the  aim  of  education  today  differ 
from  that  expressed  by  Milton  in  the  "Tractate"? 

4.  Would  it  be  possible  today  to  train  the  "man  of  the 
world"  with  the  culture  material  suggested  by  Montaigne? 

5.  What  kind  of  memory  training  had  Montaigne  in  view 
when  he  said  "to  know  by  heart  only  is  not  to  know  at  all"  ? 

6.  What  conditions  in  the  American  colonies  worked  for 
a  cordial  reception  of  realistic  ideas? 

7.  What  influences  in  England  helped  to  stay  the  develop- 
ment of  a  more  realistic   education? 

8.  Is  there  a  just  balance  in  the  education  of  today  between 
the   literary  and   scientific  elements,   between  the  thing  and 
the  word? 

9.  Give  the  reasons  for  the  late  introduction  of  the  ver- 
nacular as  the  medium  of  instruction. 

10.  Whom  in  the  early  part  of  our  study  does  Comenius 
resemble   in   his   emphasis  upon   knowledge   as  necessary  to 
right  living? 

11.  Qomenius  wished  to  have  elementary  education  com- 
pleted at  twelve.     Could  the  work  of  our  elementary  schools 
be  organized  to  end  at  that  year  and  thereby  leave  the  remain- 
ing two  years  for  vocational  work? 

12.  How  did  Comenius'  method  of  teaching  Latin   differ 
from  the  Jansenists'? 

13.  Is  the  place  of  pictures  overemphasized  in  the  text- 
books of  today?     What  justification  can  you  offer  for  the 
use  of  moving  pictures? 

14.  To  what  extent  may  collections  of  post  cards,  pictures 
from   magazines,   and   advertising  matter  be   used   for  class 
teaching? 

15.  In   what   subjects,   for  what   purposes,   and   to  what 
extent  would  you  use  the  stereopticon  and  moving  pictures? 

16.  To  what  extent  does  Lehr-und  Lernfreiheit  exist  among 
the  institutions  of  higher  education  today? 

181 


CHAPTER  XI 

A  NEW  DEFENSE  OF  HUMANISM— FORMAL  DISCIPLINE 
IN  EDUCATION 

Outline. — During  the  seventeenth  century  there  was  a  steady 
decline  in  the  utilitarian  value  of  Latin,  and  another  justifi- 
cation for  it  as  the  basis  of  the  educational  curriculum  was 
needed  by  schoolmen. 

This  was  found  in  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline,  which 
taught  that  certain  subjects,  particularly  classics  and  mathe- 
matics, develop  a  general  mental  power  that  may  be  applied  in 
any  direction,  and  they  should,  therefore,  be  studied  by 
everybody. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  humanism 
arose  in  Germany,  which  emphasized  the  value  of  the  classical 
literatures,  especially  Greek,  to  develop  the  all-round  man. 
The  new  humanism  had  little  in  common  with  the  doctrine 
of  formal  discipline. 

Decline  in  the  Utilitarian  Value  of  Latin. — The  Ren- 
aissance scholars  had  only  words  of  scorn  for  the  for- 
malism of  the  schoolmen,  whose  dialectic,  they  main- 
tained, however  well  it  may  have  sharpened  wits,  was 
empty  of  content  for  any  of  the  needs  of  life.  They 
turned  joyfully  to  the  classical  literatures  because  those 
literatures  contained  materials  of  value  to  men  in  their 
thought  life  and  in  their  activities,  in  politics,  science, 
literature,  and  philosophy.  But  as  the  generations 
passed  this  became  less  and  less  true  and  Latin  declined 
in  practical  value.  It  was  retained  as  an  official  lan- 

182 


A  NEW  DEFENSE  OF  HUMANISM 

guage  only  by  the  Catholic  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church,  it  yielded  to  French  as  the  language  of  diplo- 
macy, it  became  less  and  less  the  vehicle  for  scientific 
discussion,  its  literature  could  not  compete  in  interest 
with  the  rising  vernacular  literatures,  and  finally  at  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  it  gave  place  to  the  ver- 
nacular as  the  language  of  university  instruction.  If  it 
was  to  be  retained  as  the  basis  of  the  educational  cur- 
riculum, it  must  be  justified  upon  some  other  ground. 

The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline. — A  new  justifica- 
tion was  found  in  the  theory  of  formal  discipline.  This 
theory  is  based  upon  Aristotle's  " faculty "  psychology, 
which  considers  the  mind  to  be  made  up  of  certain  ' '  fac- 
ulties," such  as  memory,  reason,  will,  each  of  which 
needs  special  activities  for  its  training  and  development. 
The  theory  of  formal  discipline  maintained  that  the 
power  developed  in  any  faculty  by  the  study  of  a  school 
subject  can  be  used  equally  well  in  any  other  subject 
or  to  meet  any  other  experience  in  life ;  that  just  as  the 
muscular  strength  developed  by  any  physical  exercise 
can  be  used  for  any  purpose,  so  the  power  of  memory 
or  reason  developed  by  exercise  in  any  subject  of  study 
can  render  equal  service  in  any  other  study  or  situation ; 
that  the  classical  languages,  because  of  the  orderly  ar- 
rangement of  their  parts,  and  mathematics,  because  of 
the  universality  of  its  principles,  are  peculiarly  well 
adapted  to  training  all  the  powers  of  the  mind — espe- 
cially the  two  of  most  importance,  the  memory  and  the 
reason;  that,  therefore,  it  is  unnecessary  to  teach 
other  subjects  in  school  because  with  the  mental  power 
obtained  by  the  study  of  the  classics  and  mathematics 
any  other  subject  can  be  mastered  with  comparative  ease ; 
and  that,  finally,  any  student  who  cannot  measure  up 
to  a  discipline  in  these  particular  subjects  is  incapable  of 

183 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

higher  intellectual  development  or  of  meeting  the  de- 
mand of  the  more  responsible  positions  in  life.  In  a 
word,  the  theory  of  formal  discipline  maintained  that  it 
is  not  the  thing  learned,  but  how  it  is  learned  that  is 
important  in  education.  Formal  discipline,  therefore, 
came  into  direct  conflict  with  realism,  which  insisted  that 
the  first  function  of  education  is  to  provide  the  indi- 
vidual with  a  knowledge  content  which  will  give  him 
an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  natural  and  social 
world  of  which  he  is  a  part  and  in  which  he  will  perform 
his  life  work. 

Criticism  of  the  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline.— 
Psychology  no  longer  holds  that  the  mind  is  made  up  of 
a  number  of  faculties,  but  that  it  functions  as  a  unit, 
sometimes  as  thinking,  sometimes  as  feeling,  sometimes 
as  doing,  and  that  any  mental  experience,  such  as  the 
study  of  a  school  subject,  develops  the  whole  mind,  and 
not  any  faculty  of  it.  In  fact  modern  psychology  af- 
firms that  there  is  no  such  faculty  as  the  memory,  but 
that  the  mind  has  "memories,"  e.  g.,  of  time,  place, 
things ;  and  it  denies  that  an  ability  to  remember  places 
is  necessarily  accompanied  by  an  equal  ability  to  re- 
member faces  and  dates.  The  critics  of  formal  discipline, 
moreover,  deny  the  accuracy  of  the  analogy  between  the 
development  of  physical  strength  and  mental  power.  It 
is  not  true  that  the  strength  developed  by  any  physical 
exercise  can  be  turned  equally  well  to  any  use.  The 
strength  of  the  piano-mover  cannot  compare  in  value  to 
that  of  the  oarsman  in  racing,  nor  is  the  strength  of  the 
oarsman  of  equal  value  to  that  of  the  piano-mover  in 
moving  pianos.  Similarly  it  is  not  true  that  the  power 
of  reason  developed  in  the  study  of  mathematics  will  be 
of  equal  service  in  the  study  of  languages  or  in  busi- 
ness. On  the  contrary,  its  value  in  any  other  field  will 

184 


A  NEW  DEFENSE  OF  HUMANISM 

be  proportionate  to  the  identity  of  content  and  procedure 
in  that  field.  The  conclusion  of  the  critics  of  formal 
discipline  is,  therefore,  that  there  is  no  transfer  of  gen- 
eral ability,  but  only  a  transfer  of  ability  in  proportion  to 
the  similarity  of  the  two  activities.  Hence  there  is  need 
in  education  of  a  broad  and  rich  curriculum  so  that  the 
specific  powers  developed  by  the  different  subjects  and 
activities  of  the  school  can  prepare  the  individual  for 
the  various  situations  and  exigencies  of  life.  More  recent 
study  of  the  problem  has  led  to  the  belief  that  there  is  a 
transfer  of  "ideals"  from  one  field  to  another;  e.  g.,  the 
ideals  of  accuracy,  thoroness  and  orderliness  developed  in 
the  study  of  mathematics  have  an  influence  in  setting  up 
similar  ideals  in  other  subjects  of  study,  which  make 
the  student  disinclined  to  do  work  that  does  not  measure 
up  to  those  standards. 

Influence  of  the  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  Edu- 
cation.—For  two  centuries  schoolmasters  had  been  de- 
veloping an  elaborate  technique  for  the  teaching  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  languages.  It  was  impossible  that  those 
subjects  could  be  displaced  by  new  subjects  having  no 
pedagogical  technique,  without  arousing  the  utmost  con- 
cern as  to  what  might  be  the  effect  upon  education.  For 
a  long  time  it  was  simply  social  inertia  that  kept  the  cur- 
riculum unchanged.  Then  men  maintained  that  the  es- 
tablished discipline  in  Latin  and  Greek  had  produced 
fine  results:  great  minds  had  been  fashioned  by  it. 
Finally,  in  their  ignorance  of  a  more  analytical  psychol- 
ogy, they  developed  the  theory  of  formal  discipline, 
which  prevented  their  seeing  the  need  of  other  subjects 
in  the  school  curriculum.  It  is  probably  true  that  no  edu- 
cational theory  has  wielded  a  comparable  influence  upon 
educational  practice.  Down  to  the  very  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  it  was  the  accepted  educational  creed 

185 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

upon  the  part  of  the  majority  of  persons  engaged  in 
elementary  or  higher  education.  This  was  true  in  every 
one  of  the  great  culture  nations.  The  Germans  borrowed 
the  very  word  gymnasium,  which  with  the  Greeks  meant 
a  place  for  bodily  discipline,  to  give  to  their  chief  edu- 
cational institution  which  was  to  be  a  place  for  mental 
discipline.  And  it  was  not  until  the  present  Kaiser  used 
his  influence  to  that  end  that  the  Realschule  was  placed 
upon  a  par  with  the  Gymnasium  as  a  fitting-school  for 
the  university.  In  England  the  control  that  the  doctrine 
of  formal  discipline  maintained  was  still  more  rigid; 
down  to  the  report  of  the  Royal  Commission  of  1864 
the  six  to  nine  years  spent  by  an  English  boy  in  a 
public  school  were  devoted  to  a  great  extent  to  Latin  and 
Greek  prose  composition  and  versification,  in  addition  to 
.a  wide  reading  in  Latin  and  Greek  literature.  Even  the 
advocates  of  realism  and  utilitarianism  in  education  were 
influenced  by  the  theory  of  formal  discipline  and  placed 
their  chief  emphasis  upon  science  in  the  curriculum,  not 
because  of  its  socially  useful  character,  but  because  it  de- 
veloped a  better  general  mental  power  than  the  classics. 
Tho  a  "modern  side"  was  introduced  in  the  great 
public  schools  and  grammar  schools  of  England  as  the 
result  of  the  report  of  the  Royal  Commission  in  1864,  it  is 
by  no  means  equal  to  the  classical  side  in  the  estimation 
of  those  who  control  the  schools.  In  America  the  social 
conditions  attendant  upon  the  opening  up  of  a  new  coun- 
try necessitated  the  introduction  of  subjects  of  more  di- 
rect or  practical  value  into  the  schools,  though  formal 
discipline  was  held  as  a  theory  to  the  very  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  substitution  of  the  academy 
for  the  Latin  grammar  school  was  a  first  step,  and  the 
introduction  of  the  elective  system  in  colleges  and  high 
schools  a  later  step  in  the  passing  of  its  control.  But 

186 


A  NEW  DEFENSE  OF  HUMANISM 

it  was  only  yesterday  that  spelling,  grammar,  and  arith- 
metic, the  formal  subjects  of  the  elementary  school  cur- 
riculum, were  defended  as  the  best  possible  ' '  to  train  the 
mind";  and  many  teachers  of  the  older  generation  still 
consider  that  some  of  the  content  subjects,  such  as  na- 
ture study,  with  which  the  formal  subjects  have  been 
compelled  to  share  their  time,  are  for  this  reason  either 
of  inferior  value  or  mere  fads. 

The  New  Humanism. — It  needs  but  slight  reflection  to 
perceive  how  deadly  an  influence  the  doctrine  of  formal 
discipline  must  have  had  upon  the  free  expression  of 
the  human  spirit.  The  student  with  a  vivid  imagination 
or  a  fine  power  of  expressing  ideas  graphically  or  dra- 
matically was  regarded  with  little  favor  in  a  school  where 
discipline  was  the  sole  aim  of  education.  We  are  antici- 
pating a  little  in  speaking  of  the  spirit  of  personality 
proclaimed  by  Goethe  and  Schiller,  Lessing  and  Herder, 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Their  be- 
lief in  the  moral  mission  of  esthetic  culture  and  of  the 
need  of  incessant  striving  for  higher  activity  had  nothing 
in  common  with  the  educational  theory  of  formal  dis- 
cipline. At  the  court  of  the  Duke  of  Weimar  and  at 
the  Universities  of  Gottingen,  Jena,  and  elsewhere  the 
new  humanism  that  arose  again  emphasized  the  value 
of  the  classical  literatures  to  develop  the  all-round  man 
by  infusing  into  his  being  the  vitalizing  spirit  of  classical 
culture.  But  the  spirit  and  the  substance  of  the  ancient 
life  as  found  in  its  literature,  not  the  study  of  its  lan- 
guages as  a  discipline,  became  the  aim.  As  Greek  life 
and  culture  had  more  valuable  lessons  than  Latin,  the 
study  of  Greek  language  and  literature  superseded  the 
Latin.  The  spiritual  awakening  in  Germany  with  its 
longing  for  national  unity  and  vitality  which  character- 
ized the  early  nineteenth  century  was  a  partial  product 

187 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  this  movement.  It  was  lost  in  the  reaction  that  fol- 
lowed the  downfall  of  Napoleon.  All  the  forces  of  con- 
servatism in  church  and  school  welcomed  the  return  of 
the  theory  of  formal  discipline  in  education  as  a  bulwark 
of  authority  and  tradition. 

Bibliography  and  Questions  at  close  of  Chapter  XII. 


CHAPTER   XII 

RATIONALISM  IN  EDUCATION— JOHN  LOCKE  AND  THE 
ENLIGHTENMENT 

Outline. — After  the  religious  wars  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury almost  every  aspect  of  human  life  in  Europe  was  char- 
acterized by  the  dominance  of  tradition  and  authority.  The 
movement  to  attain  to  a  rational  freedom  was  initiated  by 
John  Locke,  the  founder  of  the  school  of  empiricism  in  phi- 
losophy. 

In  education  Locke  has  been  classified  as  a  realist,  a  nat- 
uralist, or  a  disciplinarian.  While  his  views  undoubtedly 
have  elements  in  common  with  these  schools,  he  makes  the 
dominating  aim  in  education  the  development  of  reason  and 
the  control  of  life  by  reason. 

Locke  is  the  starting  point  of  the  rationalistic  movement 
known  as  the  "Enlightenment,"  the  chief  characteristic  of 
which  was  the  determination  to  apply  the  test  of  reason  to 
everything  and  reject  outright  whatever  would  not  stand  that 
test.  The  greatest  influence  of  the  Enlightenment  was  wielded 
on  the  continent  under  the  influence  of  Voltaire. 

Characteristics  of  the  Early  Eighteenth  Century.— The 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  characterized  by  the  dominance 
of  tradition  and  authority  in  almost  every  aspect  of 
human  life.  After  the  religious  wars  religion  had  Set- 
tled down  to  a  conformity  to  creeds  and  dogmas  from 
which  no  divergence  was  permitted  and  which  were  de- 
structive of  true  religious  feeling  and  action.  The  higher 
intellectual  life  of  the  universities  was  characterized  by 

189 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

a  lack  of  independent  thinking  and  was  devoted  to  lec- 
tures in  Latin  on  the  theological-classical  scholasticism 
which  had  superseded  that  of  the  medieval  period.  Po- 
litical life  was  controlled  chiefly  by  sovereigns  and  was 
based  upon  their  "divine  right"  to  rule.  Social  life 
discovered  superstitions  of  all  kinds,  as,  for  instance, 
witchcraft.  Social  institutions,  state,  Church,  and  school, 
had  combined  to  destroy  the  individualism  that  had  been 
the  first  fruit  of  the  Renaissance.  A  great  force  was 
needed  to  rouse  men  from  idle  acquiescence  in  mere  as- 
sumptions and  traditions  and  stimulate  them  to  use  their 
own  minds  upon  real  facts  instead  of  words,  and  thereby 
release  themselves  from  the  weight  of  the  past  and  at- 
tain to  a  rational  freedom.  This  was  the  work  of  the 
English  philosopher  John  Locke. 

Career  of  John  Locke  (1632-1704).— Whether  one  con- 
siders Locke's  writings  in  politics  ("Treatises  on  Gov- 
ernment"), on  religion  ("Letters  on  Toleration"),  on 
philosophy  ("Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding")  or 
on  education  ("Thoughts  on  Education,"  "Conduct  of 
the  Understanding"),  one  finds  him  the  great  advocate 
of  freedom  and  reasonableness  and  the  opponent  of  tra- 
ditional dogmas,  political  superstitions,  and  empty  words 
divorced  from  things.  His  love  of  truth  amounted  al- 
most to  a  passion,  and  with  him  the  sole  guide  to  the 
attainment  of  truth  was  reason.  His  philosophy  was  es- 
sentially the  clearing  up  and  systematizing  of  our  com- 
mon-sense beliefs,  and  has  for  that  reason  always  made  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  average  intelligent  layman. 

tocke  came  of  Puritan  ancestry,  which  may  account 
for  his  love  of  political  liberty.  He  received  the  educa- 
tion which  the  average  young  Englishman  of  good  fam- 
ify  was  given  in  that  day,  viz.,  a  preparatory  training 
at  a  great  public  school,  in  his  case  Westminster,  fol- 

190 


RATIONALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

lowed  by  a  sojourn  at  one  of  the  universities,  in  his  case 
Oxford.  At  Oxford  he  was  interested  not  only  in  philos- 
ophy, but  also  in  physical  science  and  medicine.  He  af- 
terwards became  physician  and  tutor  in  the  family  of  the 
Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and  shared  the  political  fortunes  of 
that  great  statesman,  being  compelled  to  follow  him  into 
exile  in  Holland  in  1683  and  to  remain  there  until  the 
Revolution  of  1688.  Upon  his  return  to  England  he 
wrote  his  " Treatises  on  Government"  to  justify  the  Rev- 
olution and  was  rewarded  with  several  sinecure  political 
positions,  which  enabled  him  to  devote  himself  to  study 
and  writing. 

Difficulty  of  Classifying  Locke. — Locke  was  well  quali- 
fied to  write  on  education.  His  medical  studies,  combined 
with  the  fact  that  nature  had  provided  him  with  a  frail 
physique,  impressed  upon  him  the  importance  of  the 
physical  well-being  of  the  child.  He  was  a  distinguished 
psychologist,  familiar  with  the  phenomena  of  mental  de- 
velopment. He  was  a  man  of  the  world,  had  traveled 
widely  in  western  Europe  and  held  important  political 
positions.  This  made  him  competent,  therefore,  to  evalu- 
ate human  activities  and  to  discuss  the  education  best 
suited  to  meet  their  needs.  Finally,  he  was  a  private 
tutor  for  a  considerable  number  of  years,  and  thereby 
had  an  opportunity  to  study  the  child 's  reactions  to  edu- 
cational processes.  His  chief  educational  work,  "Some 
Thoughts  Concerning  Education,"  was  written  at  the 
request  of  a  friend  who  was  concerned  over  the  bringing- 
up  of  his  son.  For  a  thoro  understanding  of  his  views, 
the  "Thoughts"  should  be  read  in  conjunction  with  his 
short  essay,  "The  Conduct  of  the  Understanding,"  a 
posthumous  work  on  the  development  of  the  proper 
methods  of  reasoning.  These  two  books  were  written 
without  any  purposed  connection,  and  this  fact,  com- 

191 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

bined  with  Locke 's  versatility,  permits  writers  on  educa- 
tion to  draw  very  different  conclusions  about  his  views. 
By  some  he  is  classified  with  Montaigne  as  a  social 
realist,  and  the  facts  that  he  confines  himself  to  consider- 
ing the  education  of  a  young  gentleman,  that  he  believes 
in  tutorial  training,  that  he  insists  upon  a  practical  edu- 
cation for  socially  useful  purposes,  that  therefore  travel 
and  such  subjects  as  history  and  modern  languages  in- 
stead of  Latin  and  Greek  should  make  up  the  chief  con- 
tent of  study,  all  make  plausible  such  a  classification. 
Other  writers  on  education  classify  Locke  with  the  sense- 
realists,  and  his  insistence  that  the  materials  of  all  knowl- 
edge come  thru  the  senses  by  contact  with  things,  his 
abhorrence  of  learning  by  heart,  his  belief  in  pleasant 
methods  of  teaching  and  mild  discipline  give  some  cause 
for  such  a  classification.  Still  other  writers  place  Locke 
in  the  school  of  naturalists,  and  the  facts  that  Rousseau, 
the  great  exponent  of  that  school,  admits  his  indebted- 
ness to  Locke,  that  both  made  physical  education  of 
primary  importance,  that  both  emphasized  the  natural 
curiosity  of  the  child  in  his  intellectual  development,  and 
that  both  believed  in  the  theory  of  natural  consequences 
in  discipline  offer  some  reasons  for  such  a  classification. 
Those  who  place  Locke  in  any  of  the  classes  already  men- 
tioned draw  their  conclusions  chiefly  from  a  study  of  his 
"Thoughts."  The  most  recent  classification,  which  em- 
phasizes rather  the  "Conduct  of  the  Understanding,"  is 
to  place  him  with  those  who  hold  to  the  disciplinary  con- 
ception of  education,  tho  no  one  who  so  classifies  him 
maintains  that  he  had  anything  in  common  with  the 
rigid  pedants  of  his  day,  who  had  divorced  education 
from  practical  life  and  made  it  a  matter  of  linguistic 
drill.  They  point  out  that  Locke  not  only  made  physical 
education  fundamental,  but  that  he  made  it  essentially 

192 


RATIONALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

a  hardening  process,  a  matter  of  scanty  clothes,  hard 
beds,  prescribed  diet,  open  air  and  no  coddling.  They 
also  show  that,  when  treating  of  moral  education,  Locke 
makes  character  the  end  of  education  and  states  that 
that  end  is  to  be  obtained  by  the  formation  of  good  habits 
thru  a  long  discipline  of  the  desires.  They  admit  that 
in  the  *  *  Thoughts, ' '  when  treating  of  intellectual  educa- 
tion, he  devotes  himself  chiefly  to  the  content  of  study, 
where  he  is  in  agreement  with  the  realists.  But  they  in- 
sist that  Locke 's  true  view  of  intellectual  education  is  to 
be  found  in  the  ' '  Conduct  of  the  Understanding, ' '  where 
it  is  shown  to  consist  in  the  formation  of  habits  of 
thought  thru  discipline,  particularly  by  the  study  of 
mathematics,  and  where  he  apparently  professes  a  be- 
lief in  the  transfer  of  habits  and  power. 

Locke's  Psychology. — A  study  of  Locke's  psychology 
will  show  that,  while  each  of  these  views  of  Locke  is 
true,  they  are  all  partial  and  all  subordinate  to  the  domi- 
nating aim  in  education,  the  development  of  reason  and 
the  control  of  life  by  reason.  Locke  denied  the  existence 
of  innate  ideas  and  predicated  the  " blank-paper"  theory 
of  the  mind,  i.  e.,  that  the  mind  came  into  the  world  like 
a  piece  of  blank  paper.  Just  as  no  marks  could  appear 
on  the  paper  unless  they  were  put  there  from  outside,  so 
the  materials  for  all  ideas  come  to  the  mind  thru  the 
senses  as  the  result  of  experience  with  the  external  world. 
The  simple  ideas  thus  formed  are  developed  into  higher 
forms  of  mental  life  by  reflection,  i.  e.,  by  reasoning. 
Tlje  aim  of  education  is  virtue,  which  is  to  be  attained 
only  when  "man  is  able  to  deny  himself  his  own  de- 
sires, cross  his  own  inclinations,  and  purely  follow  what 
reason  directs  as  best,  tho  the  appetite  lean  the  other 
way."  But  in  childhood  the  reason  is  undeveloped,  and 
the  basis  of  moral  and  intellectual  education  must  be 

193 


THE  HISTOEY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  formation  of  good  habits — good  habits  of  thinking  as 
well  as  good  habits  of  action.  This  can  only  be  accom- 
plished by  repeating  the  action  or  mental  power  desired 
until  it  is  acquired.  "Would  you  have  a  man  reason  well, 
you  must  use  him  to  it  betimes,  exercise  his  mind  in  ob- 
serving the  connection  of  ideas,  and  follow  them  in  train. 
.  .  .  We  are  born  to  be,  if  we  please,  rational  creatures ; 
but  it  is  use  and  exercise  only  that  make  us  so.  .  .  ." 
The  materials  for  this  training  are  to  be  found  in  the 
1 1  Thoughts, ' '  the  method  in  the  ' '  Conduct. ' '  The  train- 
ing is  not  only  to  aim  at  reason  as  the  goal,  but  is  itself 
to  be  characterized  by  reasonableness:  hence  the  im- 
portance of  basing  method  with  children  upon  the  child 's 
natural  activities,  especially  play,  so  that  study  may  be 
made  a  recreation  instead  of  a  burden;  hence  the  use 
of  praise  and  commendation  instead  of  flogging  as  an 
incentive  to  study;  hence  the  objection  to  excessive  re- 
ligious instruction  in  early  childhood  and  therefore  the 
emphasis  upon  the  secular  aspect  of  education.  The 
last  recommendation  in  the  "Thoughts"  is  directed  to 
those  who  "dare  venture  to  consult  their  own  reason  in 
the  education  of  their  children  rather  than  rely  upon  old 
customs." 

Influence  of  Locke. — Locke  had  a  decisive  influence 
upon  education  on  the  continent  thru  the  restatement 
of  his  ideas  by  Eousseau  and  their  acceptance  by  German 
experimenters,  such  as  Basedow.  He  is  usually  credited 
with  having  caused  the  emphasis  on  physical  training 
characteristic  of  English  secondary  schools.  His  influ- 
ence on  the  thought  life  of  western  Europe  was  even 
more  profound,  for  he  is  the  starting  point  of  the  ra- 
tionalistic movement  known  as  the  Enlightenment. 

The  Enlightenment. — Ecclesiasticism,  despite  out- 
bursts against  its  authority,  remained  in  control  of 

194 


RATIONALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

thought  and  life  down  into  the  eighteenth  century.  It 
was  everywhere  allied  to  institutions  that  had  been  out- 
grown but  had  retained  their  repressive  control  of  the  in- 
dividual. The  eighteenth  century  represents  the  final 
struggle  of  the  individual  to  throw  off  the  shackles  of  in- 
stitutions, religious,  political,  and  social,  which  restricted 
his  intellectual  freedom  and  denied  his  natural  right  as  a 
man.  The  first  half  of  the  century  was  devoted  to  the 
struggle  for  freedom  to  think  for  oneself  and  to  prove 
one's  freedom  by  testing  all  things  human  and  divine 
by  one's  own  reason.  This  is  the  period  of  rationalism 
called  the  Enlightenment. 

The  movement  began  with  John  Locke  in  England, 
tho  it  had  its  greatest  influence  in  France  and  Germany. 
Its  chief  characteristic  was  the  determination  to  apply 
the  test  of  reason  to  everything  and  reject  outright  what- 
ever would  not  stand  that  test.  As  an  overemphasis 
upon  one  aspect  of  mental  life  is  likely  to  result  in  a 
neglect  of  others,  the  Enlightenment  not  merely  neg- 
lected the  whole  feeling  side  of  life,  but  viewed  with 
scorn  enthusiasm  and  vague  intuitions  as  the  enemy  of 
clear  ideas  and  definitions.  As  most  of  the  institutions 
of  the  day  had  elements  that  could  not  stand  the  test 
of  a  severely  accurate  analysis  by  reason,  the  Enlighten- 
ment was  essentially  destructive  in  nature,  and  inten- 
tionally so.  The  rationalists  were  determined  to  free  the 
human  mind  from  the  control  of  supernatural  terrorism 
and  of  traditional  beliefs  in  religion,  and  to  liberate  the 
individual  from  the  legal  injustices  and  political  tyranny 
of  the  state.  In  England  the  movement  resulted  merely 
in  skepticism,  in  religion,  and  the  growth  of  deism.  De- 
ism rejects  all  revelation  as  irrational,  and  predicates  a 
natural  religion  in  which  God  acts  in  accord  with  un- 
changeable laws  that  have  no  special  relation  to  man. 

195 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Enlightenment  in  France. — When  the  movement 
was  brought  to  France  by  Voltaire  (1694-1778),  it  had  a 
very  different  history.  In  England  the  Revolution  of 
1688  had  destroyed  the  political  doctrine  of  divine  right 
and  had  resulted  in  religious  toleration.  In  France  the 
Church  exercised  as  strong  a  despotism  over  men's  minds 
as  the  state  did  over  their  bodies.  Against  the  ob- 
scurantism and  intolerance  of  the  Church  especially, 
Voltaire  waged  a  lifelong  war.  In  this  he  was  assisted 
by  the  * '  encyclopedists, ' '  as  the  brilliant  circle  of  think- 
ers were  called  who  were  engaged  in  compiling  the  new 
encyclopedia  which  popularized  English  science  and 
philosophy  and  embodied  the  knowledge  that  man  had 
so  far  attained.  It  was  a  losing  battle  that  dogmatists 
in  Church  and  state  fought  against  the  cold  reasoning, 
biting  sarcasm  and  scientific  knowledge  of  such  men  as 
Diderot,  Montesquieu,  Turgot,  and  Helvetius.  It  must 
not  be  thought,  however,  that  the  campaign  waged  by 
the  rationalists  against  the  outrageous  abuses  that  ex- 
isted in  Church  and  state  was  an  evidence  of  their  devo- 
tion to  the  rights  of  man.  The  rationalists  were  essen- 
tially aristocrats.  They  wished  to  substitute  for  the 
worthless  aristocracy  of  blood  an  able  aristocracy  of 
intellect.  They  would  willingly  have  accepted  an  en- 
lightened despot  for  France,  such  as  Prussia  had  in 
Frederick  the  Great,  Austria  in  Joseph  II,  or  Russia  in 
Catharine  II.  As  the  masses  of  men  were  not  governed 
by  reason,  they  and  their  woes  had  an  academic  interest 
for  the  rationalists;  but  the  latter  would  have  derided, 
quite  as  much  as  the  aristocrats  of  the  old  regime,  any 
participation  of  the  masses  in  the  control  of  social  af- 
fairs. 

Influence  of  the  Enlightenment. — The  social  signifi- 
cance of  the  extreme  individualism  of  the  rationalists  can 

196 


RATIONALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

be  readily  discerned.  Man  in  his  upward  progress  de- 
veloped institutions  as  the  necessary  expression  of  his 
own  nature.  He  is  only  truly  a  man  in  so  far  as  he 
participates  in  the  life  of  those  institutions,  in  so  far 
as  he  is  a  father,  neighbor,  and  citizen.  To  conceive 
him  as  a  self-centered  unit  complete  in  himself  without 
reference  to  social  restrictions  and  complications  is  to 
conceive  the  anarchic  society  of  the  savage.  Institutions 
must  adjust  themselves  to  new  conditions  in  order  that 
they  may  not  repress  the  human  spirit,  but  the  adjust- 
ment must  result  from  the  action  of  the  general  reason, 
not  of  the  purely  individual  reason.  The  rationalists 
repeated  the  mistake  of  the  Greek  Sophists.  They  de- 
stroyed the  old  moral  sanctions  based  upon  religion  and 
custom,  but  provided  no  basis  for  a  rational  freedom. 
The  result  was  inevitable,  viz.,  to  strengthen  the  influ- 
ences working  towards  social  dissolution. 

For  the  individual  to  control  his  life  by  a  coldly  crit- 
ical reason  and  to  suppress  all  spontaneity  of  feeling 
means  for  him  to  set  up  the  standard  of  a  purely  pru- 
dential morality  and  to  formalize  life.  And  this  is  ex- 
actly what  happened  in  the  circles  of  the  upper  classes 
in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  for  they  alone  were  af- 
fected by  the  rationalistic  philosophy  of  life.  The  young 
gentleman  was  taught  to  be  prudent  in  expressing  his 
opinions,  to  exercise  moderation  in  his  passions,  and  to 
conform  to  the  religious  and  social  demands  of  an  arti- 
ficial society,  however  skeptical  of  them;  above  all  to 
avoid  all  displays  of  naturalness  as  vulgar  and  irrational. 
While  the  Enlightenment  did  a  tremendous  human  ser- 
vice in  freeing  the  intellect  from  the  bondage  of  dogma- 
tism and  traditionalism,  it  did  little  to  destroy  the  for- 
malism that  controlled  life  everywhere  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Idleness,  artificiality,  and  the  life  of  the  draw- 

197 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

ing-room  combined  to  make  the  dancing  master  the  chief 
factor  in  the  education  of  the  unfortunate  child  of  the 
aristocracy.  To  eradicate  everything  spontaneous  and 
natural  and  to  convert  him  into  a  miniature  adult  con- 
trolled by  the  formal  and  artificial  code  of  the  drawing- 
room  was  the  dancing  master's  work.  This  is  a  fair 
statement  of  the  characteristics  of  the  aristocratic  so- 
ciety in  the  eighteenth  century;  and  when  one  remem- 
bers that  the  earlier  revolts  among  the  middle  classes 
against  religious  formalism  made  by  the  English  Puritans, 
French  Jansenists,  and  German  pietists  had  in  their  turn 
degenerated  into  a  formal  piety  that  was  largely  hypo- 
critical or  fanatical,  one  can  readily  understand  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  Rousseau's  gospel  of  the  return  to 
the  natural,  simple,  and  emotional  was  received  every- 
where in  Europe. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Formal  Discipline, 
Rationalism,  the  Enlightenment,  Locke,  Voltaire,  etc. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  A  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  XXXIII. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.    A  History  of  Education,  Vol.  II,  pp.  305-311. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
IX. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Edu- 
cation. Chap.  VII. 

QUICK,  R.  H.    Educational  Reformers.    Chap.  XIII. 

.    Locke  on  Education. 

THORNDIKE,  E.  L.    Educational  Psychology.    Chap.  VIII. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  What  is  the  modern  view  of  the  "hardening  process"  in 
physical  education  maintained  by  Locke? 

198 


RATIONALISM  IN  EDUCATION 

2.  Why  was  Locke's  insistence  that  the  materials  of  knowl- 
edge come  thru   the  senses  so   long  delayed   in   educational 
practice  ? 

3.  Does  modern  education  place  as  much  emphasis  upon 
habit   formation   as   the   basis    of  character   development   as 
did   Locke? 

4.  What  is  the  modern  view  of  the  mind  at  birth?    Does 
it  have  innate  ideas?    Is  it  like  a  blank  paper? 

5.  Make  a  list  of  the  various  incentives  to  study  used  in  edu- 
cation, and  evaluate  Locke's  use  of  praise  and  commendation. 

6.  Has  education  since  the  Renaissance  placed  an  undue 
emphasis  upon  the  development  of  reason  as  the  aim  of  school 
training? 

7.  Does  the  rationalists'  low  estimate  of  the  value  of  the 
feelings  and  of  the  imagination  account  in  any  way  for  the 
small  place  occupied  by  the  fine  arts  in  education  ? 

8.  In  what  respects  do  the  rationalists  of  the  Enlighten- 
ment resemble  the  philosophers  of  Plato's  "Republic"? 

9.  In  what  respects  does  the  Enlightenment  resemble  the 
Renaissance  ? 


PART   IV 
MODERN  TIMES 

Characteristics :  The  triumph  of  individualism.  The 
predominance  of  secular  interests  in  education.  The  de- 
velopment of  national,  state-supported  and  state-con- 
trolled systems  of  schools. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 
IN  LIFE  —  NATURALISM  IN  EDUCATION  —  JEAN 
JACQUES  ROUSSEAU 

Outline. — Rousseau  was  the  great  opponent  of  formalism 
and  the  great  exponent  of  naturalism  in  life  and  education. 
He  maintained  that  feeling,  not  reason,  is  the  element  common 
to  all  men,  and  was  himself  the  exponent  of  his  own  beliefs. 

Rousseau's  social  philosophy  is  expounded  in  his  "Social 
Contract"  which  is  a  proclamation  of  the  rights  of  man,  and 
which  inspired  much  of  the  writing  and  action  of  the  French 
Revolution.  His  educational  philosophy  is  expounded  in  the 
"Emile"  which  is  a  proclamation  of  the  rights  of  the  child 
and  is  the  beginning  of  the  "new  education." 

Natural  education  means  giving  the  natural  instincts,  im- 
pulses, and  feelings  of  the  child  unrestricted  opportunity  of 
expression.  Hence  it  is  a  negative  education,  in  which  de- 
velopment results  from  experience,  not  from  positive  instruc- 
tion. Intellectually,  it  means  relying  upon  the  natural  curiosity 
of  the  child;  morally,  upon  natural  punishments. 

The  first  attempt  to  realize  Rousseau's  teaching  in  school 
practice  was  undertaken  by  Basedow  in  Germany.  His  insti- 
tution, the  Philanthropinum,  had  as  a  keynote  "everything 
according  to  nature."  It  anticipated  some  of  the  reforms  with 
which  Pestalozzi's  name  is  usually  associated,  and  initiated  a 
liberalizing  tendency  in  German  education. 

Rousseau  and  the  Rationalists. — Rousseau  was  in  many 
respects  the  child  of  the  Enlightenment.  The  rational- 
ists had  made  individualism  the  central  fact  of  their 

203 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

whole  movement,  and  no  one  in  history  has  emphasized 
the  principle  of  individualism  more  than  Rousseau.  But 
in  few  other  respects  did  Rousseau  and  the  rationalists 
agree.  He  is  the  great  apostle  of  the  feelings  in  life, 
Feeling  is  the  element  common  to  all  men,  not  reason. 
Control  by  reason  leads  to  a  cold,  calculating  selfishness, 
to  a  neglect  of  the  common  man.  Control  by  feeling 
gives  expression  to  the  best  in  human  nature  and  to  love 
for  one's  fellow  man.  He  was  himself  the  exponent  of 
his  own  beliefs.  He  was  the  slave  of  his  feelings,  in- 
stincts, and  impulses  and  was  a  sentimentalist,  if  there 
ever  was  one.  It  was  most  natural  that  he  should  quar- 
rel, in  turn,  with  Voltaire  and  with  Diderot.  He  reacted 
most  violently,  not  only  against  aristocratic,  but  also 
against  intellectual  formalism;  not  only  against  the  in- 
difference and  heartlessness  of  the  aristocracy  of  birth, 
but  also  against  the  pretensions  and  narrowness  of  the 
aristocracy  of  intellect.  With  the  rationalists  he  -would 
do  away  with  those  institutions  which  the  Middle  Ages 
bequeathed,  but  which  had  been  outlived  and  had  be- 
come mere  burdens.  But  unlike  the  rationalists  he  would 
do  away  also  with  all  the  petty  conventions  and  artificial 
restrictions  of  society,  and  return  to  a  simple  and  nat- 
ural state  wherein  no  one  would  desire  to  lord  it  over 
his  fellows.  The  emphasis  in  modern  life  upon  the 
place  of  feeling  in  literature,  art,  and  religion  can  be 
traced  to  Rousseau. 

Career  of  Rousseau  (1712-1778). — Tho  Rousseau  gave 
voice  to  the  hopes  and  aspirations  which  were  stirring 
men's  minds  in  his  day,  nevertheless  his  views  on  life 
and  education  were  chiefly  the  result  of  his  own  personal 
experience.  What  those  experiences  were  we  learn 
chiefly  from  his  "Confessions,"  in  which  he  lays  bare 
his  own  soul  and  discovers  himself  to  be  a  remarkable 

204 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

mixture  of  the  attractive  and  the  repulsive,  of  what  is 
fine  and  what  is  vile.  His  life  falls  naturally  into  three 
periods:  (1)  the  period  of  preparation,  1712-1750;  (2) 
the  period  of  productivity,  1750-1765,  in  which  almost 
all  his  works  were  written;  (3)  the  period  of  decline, 
1765-1778,  when  he  was  really  semi-insane  and  led  a 
wretchedly  morbid  existence.  '  He  was  born  at  Geneva 
in  1712,  of  a  dissolute  father  and  a  neurotic  mother,  and 
was  brought  up  chiefly  by  a  silly  and  sentimental  aunt 
who  fed  his  naturally  vivid  imagination  upon  trashy 
romances.  His  early  education  was  very  irregular,  and 
during  the  four  years  he  spent  in  trade  apprenticeship 
to  an  engraver  he  learned,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ments, more  of  lying,  cheating,  and  shirking  than  he  did 
of  craftsmanship.  The  simple  and  earnest  life  of  Geneva, 
however,  left  a  deep  impression  upon  his  mind  and  af ter- 
wards^furnished  him  with  some  of  the  materials  for  the 
ideal  natural  state  of  society  which  he  proclaimed.  At 
sixteen  he  ran  away  from  Geneva  and  spent  many  years 
in  a  state  of  vagabondage,  interspersed  with  desultory 
service  in  several  wealthy  families.  These  roving  years 
provided  him  with  the  knowledge  and  love  of  nature 
afterwards  shown  in  the  * '  Emile, ' '  and  with  the  knowl- 
edge and  the  hatred  of  the  wretched  conditions  of 
the  mass  of  the  people  which  helped  inspire  the  "Social 
Contract.  *  '  He  finally  gravitated  to  Paris,  where  he  lived 
with  a  stupid  and  illiterate  girl  of  the  lower  class,  earn- 
ing their  living  in  a  variety  of  ways.  During  this  period 
he  showed  a  real  interest  and  considerable  ability  in 
music.  J  Finally,  in  1750,  the  opportunity  came  to  him 
to  give  expression  to  the  views  that  had  been  germinat- 
ing in  his  mind  for  many  years.  The  Academy  of  Dijon 
offered  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on  the  subject:  "Has 
the  Progress  of  the  Sciences  and  Arts  Contributed  to 

205 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Corrupt  or  Purify  Morals  ? ' '  Eousseau  wrote  a  brilliant 
essay  which  won  the  prize,  perhaps  more  because  of  its 
fervor  and  literary  style  than  of  its  logic.  He  main- 
tained the  thesis  that  the  sciences  and  arts  have  been 
inimical  to  morals.  The  book  made  him  famous,  and  his 
essay  ''On  the  Origin  of  Inequality  Among  Men,"  which 
he  wrote  three  years  later  in  competition  for  a  second 
prize  offered  by  the  same  Academy,  tho  it  did  not  win  the 
prize,  was  eagerly  read.  In  1759  he  wrote  his  famous 
romance,  "The  New  Heloise,"  in  which  he  emphasized 
the  beauty  of  natural  scenery  and  idealized  romantic  love 
and  simple  domestic  life.  The  novel  took  Paris  by  storm 
and  inspired  its  grandes  dames  to  suckling  their  own  in- 
fants, and  residing  in  the  country.  It  did  more  good, 
however,  by  preparing  the  public  for  the  appearance  of 
the  "Social  Contract"  and  the  "Emile"  in  1762.  The 
one  was  considered  anti-monarchical  and  the  other  anti- 
religious,  and  the  ' '  Emile ' '  was  publicly  burned  in  both 
Catholic  Paris  and  Protestant  Geneva.  Rousseau  was 
compelled  to  leave  France  and  find  refuge  successively  in 
Switzerland,  Prussia,  and  England.  He  was  able  to  re- 
turn to  France,  however,  in  1770  and  remain  there  until 
his  death  in  1778,  finishing  his  "Confessions"  and  lead- 
ing a  half  insane  life. 

Rousseau's  Social  Philosophy. — In  the  two  prize  essays 
Rousseau  proclaims  the  ideal  society  to  be  that  of  the 
natural  state,  i.  e.,  of  primitive  man,  a  state  in  which 
men  are  unequal  physically  and  mentally  because  they 
are  so  by  nature,  but  are  not  unequal  socially  and 
live  in  a  condition  of  contentment  and  happiness. 
Thru  the  rise  of  private  property  social  inequalities  com- 
menced, and  the  whole  of  history  thenceforward  is  the 
story  of  the  development  of  man  from  a  condition  of  rela- 
tive equality  to  one  of  absolute  inequality.  In  the  ' '  So- 

206 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

cial  Contract"  Rousseau  adopts  the  theory  already  put 
forward  by  Hobbes  and  Locke,  that  civil  society  origi- 
nated in  a  contract  whereby  men  in  return  for  security 
and  certain  other  advantages  gave  up  the  unrestricted 
individual  freedom  which  belongs  to  them  by  nature. 
This  contract  between  the  people  and  the  rulers  was 
solely  for  the  general  welfare,  for  civil  society  can  only 
be  justified  by  the  advantages  It  brings  to  its  members. 
Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  existing  government  protects 
the  inequalities  and  social  privileges  that  have  grown  up. 
Hence  the  contract  no  longer  holds,  and  men  should  re- 
turn to  the  natural  state.  But  the  natural  state  of  the 
"Social  Contract"  is  not  that  of  the  prize  essays,  but  a 
society  organized  under  the  rule  of  the  people,  wherein 
the  individual,  tho  controlled  by  the  general  will,  retains 
his  freedom  and  can  develop  his  natural  capacities  un- 
hampered. It  is  the  exposition  of  these  beliefs  in  the 
1 1  Social  Contract ' '  that  inspired  our  own  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man 
in  the  French  Revolution. 

Rousseau's  Educational  Philosophy. — If  the  "Social 
Contract"  is  a  proclamation  of  the  rights  of  man,  the 
"Emile"  is  a  proclamation  of  the  rights  of  the  child. 
The  child  must  be  freed  from  the  repressing  customs 
and  training  that  have  been  imposed  upon  him,  just  as 
the  man  must  be  emancipated  from  the  perverted  institu- 
tions that  prevent  his  free  action.  We  must  educate  the 
child  * '  according  to  nature ' ' ;  and  to  do  so  we  must  study 
his  nature  to  find  out  whether  there  are  any  laws  dis- 
coverable in  him  comparable  to  the  laws  governing  phys- 
ical phenomena.  The  "Emile"  is  really  the  first  im- 
portant treatise  on  child  study.  Hence  when  impressed 
by  the  inconsistencies  and  paradoxes  that  may  be  found 
in  it,  one  must  remember  its  pioneer  character  and  the 

207 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

need  felt  by  Rousseau  of  startling  people  into  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  absurdities  and  outrages  of  the  prevailing 
education  by  using  all  the  devices  of  the  rhetorician. 

The  keynote  of  the  philosophy  of  this  revolutionary 
work,  which  is  an  educational  treatise  in  the  guise  of  a 
romance,  is  given  in  the  opening  sentence.  ' '  Everything 
is  good  as  it  comes  from  the  hands  of  the  Author  of  na- 
ture :  but  everything  degenerates  in  the  hands  of  man. ' ' 
Human  nature,  then,  is  good;  there  is  no  original  sin; 
there  is  no  total  depravity  as  taught  by  the  theologians. 
If  the  child  is  by  nature  good  at  birth,  then  the  instincts, 
impulses,  inclinations,  and  feelings  of  which  he  is  made 
are  good.  Why  should  any  restrictions  be  placed  upon 
his  free  development?  Why  is  not  the  best  education  a 
negative  education,  wherein  no  positive  instruction  is 
given  in  the  subjects  ordinarily  foisted  upon  the  child, 
but  wherein  his  own  individual  nature,  his  own  natural 
capacities,  his  own  natural  inclinations  shall  have  free 
play  ?  Negative  education  does  not  mean  doing  nothing. 
It  means  allowing  the  organs  whereby  knowledge  is  ob- 
tained to  become  perfected  before  the  knowledge  itself 
is  presented.  Physically  negative  education  means  free- 
dom from  restrictions  on  the  child 's  natural  activity,  and 
the  observance  of  all  the  good  rules  as  to  sleep,  diet,  air, 
and  clothing  which  Locke  had  formulated  and  which 
Rousseau  borrowed.  Intellectually  it  means  relying  upon 
the  natural  curiosity  of  the  child  and  upon  an  appeal 
to  his  interest,  so  that  his  senses  shall  have  become  sharp- 
ened and  his  judgment  properly  exercised  for  use  at  the 
age  of  twelve,  when  the  child  has  enough  surplus  energy 
to  undertake  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  Morally  it 
means  the  discipline  of  consequences  or  ' '  natural  punish- 
ments. ' '  Nature 's  punishment  for  any  infraction  of  her 
laws  is  never  arbitrary,  but  always  the  inevitable  conse- 

208 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

quence  of  the  infraction  itself.  So  the  child  should  not 
be  scolded  nor  whipped,  but  should  be  permitted  to  suf- 
fer the  natural  results  of  his  own  acts. 

The  principle  of  natural  punishments  has  had  such  an 
influence  upon  subsequent  writers  on  education  that  it  is 
worth  while  to  consider  briefly  wherein  it  is  valuable  and 
wherein  impracticable.  (1)  It  is  of  service  in  removing 
the  human  element  in  the  problem  of  discipline.  The 
child  feels  no  resentment,  as  in  the  case  of  punishment 
inflicted  by  parent  or  teacher.  (2)  It  is  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  principle  of  cause  and  effect,  when 
the  child  is  old  enough  to  appreciate  such  a  principle. 
(3)  But  it  is  unsatisfactory  in  that  it  is  sometimes  too 
severe  and  sometimes  not  severe  enough.  Overeating 
may  result  in  permanent  injury  to  the  digestive  system, 
whereas  the  natural  result  of  lying,  viz.,  not  being  be- 
lieved even  when  one  speaks  the  truth,  is  too  remote 
to  affect  the  child  to  any  great  extent.  (4)  It  may  pun- 
ish others  more  than  the  child.  To  leave  a  child  at  home 
as  the  natural  consequence  of  not  being  ready  to  catch 
the  train  for  a  picnic  means  for  the  parent  or  teacher 
to  worry  during  the  picnic  about  the  child.  (5)  It  would 
result  in  a  merely  prudential  morality.  The  positive 
and  finer  virtues  like  unselfishness  and  magnanimity  can 
never  be  developed  by  a  consideration  of  consequences 
only. 

We  have  still  to  consider  one  other  implication  in  the 
opening  sentence  of  the  "Emile."  If  "  everything  de- 
generates in  the  hands  of  man, ' '  then  society  and  its  in- 
stitutions, which  are  the  results  of  man's  work,  must  be 
bad,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  was  much  in 
Rousseau's  day  to  justify  such  a  conclusion.  The  educa- 
tional inference  is  that  the  child  must  be  removed  from 
such  associations  and  brought  to  the  country  where,  un- 

209 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

der  the  direction  of  a  tutor,  the  principles  of  negative 
education  enumerated  above  can  be  worked  out  in  con- 
tact with  nature  alone. 

Periods  in  the  Development  of  the  Child, — Rousseau 
revolted  violently  against  the  prevailing  practice  of 
treating  children  as  miniature  adults.  He  insisted  that 
the  child's  life  could  be  divided  roughly  into  periods  of 
growth,  for  each  of  which  there  were  appropriate  ac- 
tivities. The  periods  were  as  follows :  from  birth  to  five 
years,  from  five  to  twelve,  from  twelve  to  fifteen,  from 
fifteen  to  twenty.  To  each  of  these  periods  he  devotes 
a  book  of  the  ' '  Emile, ' '  a  fifth  book  being  devoted  to  the 
education  of  girls,  as  typified  by  Sophie,  whom  Emile 
afterwards  marries. 

First  Period  (from  Birth  to  Five  Tears). — The  first 
book  of  the  ' '  Emile ' '  is  devoted  chiefly  to  the  exposition 
of  the  general  principle  which  we  have  already  discussed. 
But  it  treats  also  specifically  of  the  training  of  the  child 
to  his  fifth  year.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Rous- 
seau 's  negative  education  means  that  the  child  is  to  have 
no  supervision.  The  mother  is  to  nurse  her  own  child, 
and  the  father  is  to  direct  his  training  when  training 
begins.  The  aim  is  to  make  of  him  a  healthy  little  ani- 
mal, and  that  is  to  be  accomplished  by  letting  nature 
alone.  There  is  to  be  no  forcing  process,  e.  g.,  the  child 
will  learn  to  walk  without  any  teaching.  One  must  re- 
move all  restraint  on  his  physical  freedom,  must  let  him 
play  in  the  open  country  with  only  natural  objects  as 
his  toys,  and  must  attempt  to  teach  him  no  ideas  of  right 
and  wrong,  for  he  cannot  understand  them. 

Second  Period  (from  Five  to  Twelve). — Physical  de- 
velopment thru  running,  jumping,  climbing,  and  swim- 
ming, intellectual  development  thru  sensory  and  motor 
activities  impelled  by  the  child's  curiosity,  and  moral 

210 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

development  thru  the  discipline  of  consequences  make 
up  the  life  of  the  child  during  this  period.  His  education 
is  the  very  opposite  of  the  one  then  prevalent.  He  is 
taught  neither  reading,  writing,  history  nor  literature. 
But  he  learns  of  his  own  accord  to  measure  distances,  to 
compare  the  weights  of  things,  to  draw  objects,  and  to 
make  his  own  inferences,  as  the  result  of  his  constant 
contact  with  objects  and  natural  phenomena.  Sense 
perception,  motor  activity,  and  intellectual  development 
go  hand  in  hand  in  the  education  of  experience  received, 
by  Emile  under  the  supervision  of  the  teacher,  who  is  to 
guide  but  not  teach. 

Third  Period  (from  Twelve  to  Fifteen). — During  the 
years  from  twelve  to  fifteen,  according  to  Rousseau,  the 
child  has  more  strength  than  he  needs ;  hence  this  is  the 
period  which  can  best  be  devoted  to  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge.  But  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  is  still  to 
be  determined  by  natural  desires,  i.  e.,  by  curiosity  and 
interest.  As  not  everything  can  be  learned,  only  what  is 
useful  and  comprehensible  shall  be  attempted,  and  that 
means  science.  Science  deals  with  the  concrete  and 
gives  opportunity  for  training  not  merely  in  observation, 
but  in  investigation  and  inference.  But  it  must  be  science 
as  nature  presents  it,  not  in  the  logical  order  of  the 
books:  e.  g.,  Emile  learns  geography  from  the  topogra- 
phy of  the  country  about  his  home,  not  from  maps  and 
globes  which  would  give  him  misleading  ideas.  The  only 
exception  to  Rousseau  7s  opposition  to  books  is  l '  Robinson 
Crusoe, "  which  is  the  first  book  that  Emile  reads,  be- 
cause it  is  a  study  of  "life  according  to  nature. "  It 
gives  a  knowledge  of  the  natural  needs  of  man  and  of 
the  means  for  providing  for  them,  and  is  a  fine  incentive 
to  participation  in  manual  work.  Emile,  in  fact,  learns 
during  this  period  the  trade  of  cabinet-making — for  its 

211 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

economic  value  in  providing  a  livelihood,  if  necessary; 
for  its  social  value  in  enhancing  the  dignity  of  labor; 
and  for  its  educational  value  in  developing  skill  and  in 
keeping  the  body  sufficiently  exercised. 

Fourth  Period  (from  Fifteen  to  Twenty). — To  fifteen 
Entile  has  been  educated  solely  for  himself  and  by  him- 
self, hence  his  education  has  been  primarily  physical. 
But  at  fifteen  sex  interests  appear;  and  as  sex  interests 
form  the  basis  of  moral  and  social  life,  the  education  of 
this  period  is  one  of  social  relationships,  of  learning  to 
live  with  one 's  fellows.  Even  this,  however,  is  primarily 
an  education  of  experience,  not  of  instruction.  Emile 
is  brought  by  his  tutor  into  natural  contact  with  all  kinds 
of  men  and  situations,  to  learn  thereby  to  do  good  and 
avoid  evil.  If  the  experience  would  be  too  dangerous, 
then  the  lesson  can  be  learned  from  history.  In  this 
period  also  he  is  to  receive  his  religious  training.  To 
this  time  he  has  not  even  known  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
he  learns  of  the  existence  of  God  now  thru  his  manifes- 
tation in  nature.  Natural  as  against  revealed  religion 
is  the  aim.  To  teach  children  religion  is  to  impose  upon 
them  forms,  ceremonies,  and  dogmas,  which  may  result 
in  their  being  good  sectarians  but  will  not  make  them 
reverence  God  or  love  their  neighbor.  Religion  is  a 
matter  of  the  heart,  not  of  the  head ;  it  is  to  be  felt,  not 
reasoned  out. 

The  Education  of  Woman. — The  fifth  and  last  book  of 
the  " Emile"  is  devoted  to  the  education  of  Sophie,  whom 
Emile  marries.  Since  woman  is  "by  nature "  different 
from  man,  there  must  be  a  corresponding  difference  in 
their  education.  But  with  Rousseau  the  difference  is 
so  pronounced  as  to  make  him  contradict  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  his  philosophy  of  education,  viz.,  that 
the  education  of  each  individual  is  to  be  determined  by 

212 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

the  needs  and  rights  of  his  own  personality.  Indeed,  he 
uncovers  a  low  view  of  womanhood.  Woman  has  no  in- 
dividuality, her  life  is  to  be  wholly  supplementary  to 
man's.  She  is  to  be  physically  trained  in  order  to  bear 
strong  children ;  to  be  taught  singing,  dancing,  embroid- 
ery, designing,  in  order  to  please  men ;  to  receive  an  early 
education  in  morals  and  religion  in  order  to  secure  a 
good  home  life  for  her  family.  In  other  words,  while 
Rousseau  was  a  century  ahead  of  his  time  in  discussing 
the  education  of  the  boy,  he  varies  but  little  from  his 
time  in  considering  the  education  of  the  girl.  None  of 
the  great  influence  he  had  upon  subsequent  educators 
can  be  traced  to  what  he  says  in  his  fifth  book. 

Estimate  of  the  "Emile."— The  education  of  the  indi- 
vidual consists  of  the  action  of  two  factors:  nature  and 
nurture.  One  can  no  more  say  that  one  of  these  factors 
is  more  important  than  the  other  than  he  can  say  that 
the  factor  three  is  more  important  than  the  factor  two 
in  arriving  at  the  product  six.  Education,  from  the  time 
when  the  Renaissance  degenerated  into  narrow  hu- 
manism, had  taken  into  consideration  nurture  only.  The 
aim  of  school  work  was  to  produce  the  learned  man,  and 
the  child  was  looked  upon  as  a  learning  animal.  The 
sooner  he  could  be  transformed  thru  nurture  into  the 
man,  the  sooner  would  education  accomplish  its  work. 
This  was  best  done  by  transferring  to  him  the  accumu- 
lated product  of  man 's  mental  activity,  especially  litera- 
ture. Hence  the  emphasis  upon  memory,  hence  the  neg- 
lect of  the  thing  for  the  word,  hence  the  need  of  rigid 
discipline  to  accomplish  what  was  necessarily  a  hard 
task.  Against  all  this  the  " Emile"  was  a  revolt  to  the 
other  extreme,  of  making  education  a  matter  of  nature 
only.  There  was  to  be  no  nurture,  no  training,  no  dis- 
cipline, no  instruction,  only  the  unrestricted  develop- 

213 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

ment  of  the  powers  with  which  nature  endows  the  indi- 
vidual. In  other  words,  in  the  "Emile"  the  child  re- 
places the  subject  matter  as  the  central  fact  in  education. 
The  work  of  the  ' '  Emile ' '  was  of  necessity  primarily  de- 
structive,  and  it  performed  a  great  service  in  clearing 
the  ground  of  much  educational  rubbish  preparatory  to 
laying  a  new  foundation.  Altho  the  "  Emile "  provides 
an  impossible  scheme  for  educating  the  individual  for 
social  life,  it  is  so  full  of  suggestiveness  concerning  the 
aims,  content,  and  processes  of  education  as  to  be  the 
starting  point  of  the  new  education. 

The  New  Education. — The  education  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  characterized  by  three  tendencies  whose  in- 
fluence is  still  pervasive,  viz.,  the  psychological,  the 
scientific,  and  the  sociological.  Education  was  considered 
to  be  essentially  a  matter  of  development  from  within, 
not  of  accretion  from  without.  This  development  was 
to  be  based  upon  the  native  instincts  and  impulses  of 
the  child,  which  were  no  longer  regarded  as  low-grade 
things.  They  and  all  the  other  natural  forces  and  ac- 
tivities of  the  child  had  of  necessity  to  be  studied ;  hence 
the  first  influence  of  Rousseau  upon  education  was  to 
psychologize  it,  to  direct  it  to  child  study.  He  knew 
little  of  psychology  himself,  but  he  had  a  deep  sympathy 
with  children  and  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  their  na- 
ture; and  his  views,  however  distorted,  became  the  in- 
spiration of  the  work  of  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and  Froebel. 
The  second  influence  of  Rousseau  upon  education  re- 
sulted "from  his  emphasis  upon  physical  nature  as  pro- 
viding its  proper  culture  material.  His  opposition  to 
books,  and  his  insistence  upon  things  a£  alone  offering  op- 
portunity for  the  play  of  the  child's  curiosity,  interest, 
and  activity  directed  attention  to  nature  study ;  and  na- 
ture study  is  the  A  B  C  of  science.  The  tendency  dur- 

214 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

ing  the  nineteenth  century  to  give  a  larger  and  larger 
place  to  science  in  the  content  of  education  undoubtedly 
received  its  start  from  Rousseau.  The  third  influence  of 
Rousseau  upon  education,  viz.,  to  socialize  it,  seems  al- 
most a  paradox.  His  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  re- 
conciliation of  individual  liberty  with  social  stability 
would  result  in  social  anarchy.  But  the  impossible  edu- 
cation for  social  living  suggested  by  him  in  the  fourth 
book  of  the  "Emile"  misled  no  educator  who  was  in- 
spired by  his  views.  On  the  contrary  those  who  best 
caught  the  true  spirit  of  his  teachings  have  all  empha- 
sized the  social  aspects  of  education.  His  intense  sym- 
pathy for  his  fellow  man,  especially  for  the  poor,  his 
insistence  upon  the  emotional  as  against  the  intellectual 
in  education,  his  demand  for  the  teaching  of  a  trade,  have 
all  inspired  movements  that  have  had  for  their  aim  em- 
phasis upon  the  democratic,  moral,  and  industrial  aspects 
of  education. 

Influence  of  the  "Emile"  upon  Schools. — Upon  the 
chief  culture  peoples  of  Europe  Rousseau  had  a  pro- 
found influence,  but  not  always  in  the  same  way.  He 
started  the  romantic  movement  in  literature,  with  its 
emphasis  upon  the  heroic  and  sentimental,  its  apprecia- 
tion of  natural  scenery,  and  its  interest  in  the  life  of 
the  common  people  as  against  that  of  the  court.  And 
the  romantic  movement  had  a  great  influence  upon  the 
literatures  of  France,  England,  and  Germany.  His  po- 
litical and  social  theories  were  undoubtedly  a  contribut- 
ing cause  to  the  great  revolution  in  France.  They  also 
had  considerable  influence  in  Germany  and  some  slight 
influence  in  England.  His  educational  views  as  por- 
trayed in  the  ' '  Emile ' '  had  no  effect  upon  the  prevailing 
education  in  France,  for  the  "Emile"  was  anathema  to 
both  Church  and  state.  They  had  no  influence  in  Eng- 

215 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

land,  where  they  did  not  appeal  to  the  practical  common 
sense  of  the  Englishman.  The  first  attempt  to  realize 
Rousseau's  teachings  in  school  practice  was  made  in 
Germany,  the  home  of  so  many  experiments  in  education. 
Johann  Bernard  Basedow  (1723-1790). — Despite  the 
efforts  of  realists  and  pietists  education  in  Germany  con- 
tinued to  be  dominated  by  ecclesiastical  formalism  dur- 
ing the  eighteenth  century.  The  catechism  and  the  Latin 
grammar  still  reigned  supreme,  necessitating  memorizing 
the  uncomprehended  in  study;  and  harshness  in  disci- 
pline was  universal.  Children's  activity  and  curiosity 
continued  to  be  looked  upon  as  evil  tendencies,  and 
school  life  was,  therefore,  a  dismal  and  joyless  affair. 
The  publication  of  the  "Emile"  came  as  the  breath  of 
a  new  life  to  German  students  of  education,  and  among 
the  first  to  be  affected  was  Basedow.  He  resembled 
Rousseau  temperamentally,  being  irresponsible,  immoral, 
and  unstable;  he  hated  the  narrow-minded  sectarianism 
which  controlled  German  life  and  education,  and  he 
started  a  movement  which  resulted  in  a  remarkable 
change.  In  the  first  part  of  his  career  he  was  engaged 
in  a  theological  controversy  with  the  orthodox  party, 
which  resulted  in  his  being  denied  a  teaching  position 
in  any  public  institution.  He  became  a  private  tutor, 
and  as  such  showed  remarkable  ability  in  correlating  his 
pupils'  play  with  work  and  their  intellectual  activities 
indoors  with  nature  outdoors.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
great  interest  aroused  by  Rousseau's  "Emile,"  he  pub- 
lished in  1768  "An  Address  to  Philanthropists  and  Men 
of  Property  on  Schools  and  Studies  and  Their  Influence 
on  the  Public  Welfare."  In  this  he  made  an  appeal 
for  money  with  which  first  to  publish  proper  textbooks 
and  secondly  to  organize  a  school  according  to  the  new 
ideas.  The  appeal  contained  two  striking  suggestions, 

216 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

viz.,  that  schools  should  be  secularized,  and  that  they 
should  be  nationalized.  The  response  was  most  generous, 
the  money  coming  from  all  classes  and  from  all  coun- 
tries. It  enabled  Basedow  in  1774  to  issue  his  two  books, 
"Das  Elementarwerk"  (The  Elementary  Work),  and 
"Das  Methodenbuch"  (The  Book  of  Method),  both 
of  which  received  a  most  enthusiastic  reception.  "The 
Elementary  Work"  was  really  the  first  reformed  text- 
book that  had  been  issued  since  Comenius  published  the 
"Orbis  Pictus."  It  was,  in  fact,  modeled  upon  the 
"Orbis  Pictus,"  which  Basedow  had  used  with  his 
private  pupils.  Its  use  was  to  result  in  a  knowledge 
primarily  of  natural  objects  and  phenomena,  and  it  was 
accompanied  by  a  book  of  illustrations.  In  the  "Book 
of  Method  '  '  Rousseau  's  method  of  learning  by  experience 
was  advocated  thruout,  e.  g.,  foreign  languages  were 
to  be  taught  by  the  natural  method,  i.  e.,  the  conversa- 
tional method  instead  of  the  grammatical. 

The  Philanthropinum.  —  Basedow  was  not  content  to 
publish  his  views  in  books  ;  he  wished  to  realize  them  in 
practice.  With  the  generous  assistance  of  the  Prince  of 
Dessau  he  opened  at  Dessau  in  1774  an  institution  which 
he  called  the  "Philanthropinum."  As  the  name  indi- 
cates, the  love  of  mankind  was  to  dominate  and  the  chil- 
dren of  the  rich  and  poor  were  to  be  taught  together. 
The  keynote  of  the  school  was  "  everything  according  to 
nature."  Rousseau's  views  were^Th  constant  evidence.' 


were  simply  and  loosely  dressed,  and  phys- 
ical exercises  and  games  were  provided  for  their  bodily 
training.  Nature  study,  chiefly  by  means  of  excursions 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  lessons  from  things  and  pictures 
to  train  the  senses  formed  an  important  part  of  the 
work.  All  the  teaching  was  in  the  vernacular  and,  altho 
Latin  was  retained  for  reasons  of  expediency,  it,  like 

217 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

French,  was  taught  by  the  natural  method.  All  were 
given  instruction  in  handicrafts,  but  the  children  of 
the  rich  spent  at  them  only  two  of  the  eight  school  hours 
daily  and  the  children  of  the  poor,  six.  The  method  of 
teaching  arithmetic,  geography,  physics,  and  geometry 
had  in  each  case  the  aim  to  make  the  work  as  practical 
as  possible  and  to  relate  it  as  closely  as  possible  to  the 
interests  and  comprehension  of  the  pupils. 

Influence  of  the  Philanthropise  Movement. — Basedow 
had  associated  with  him  some  excellent  teachers,  and  his 
institution  started  out  under  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions. But  his  infirmities  of  Jtemper  and  character  were 
such  that  his  best  teachers  found  it  impossible  to  work 
with  him.  Moreover,  he  was  a  great  boaster  and  disap- 
pointed his  supporters  by  the  non-fulfillment  of  his  ex- 
travagant promises.  He  was  compelled  within  a  few 
years  to  sever  his  connection  with  the  Dessau  institution, 
and  under  other  men  it  survived  only  till  1793.  But 
that  institution  was  not  by  any  means  the  finest  exponent 
of  the  philanthropinic  movement.  Christian  Salzmann 
(1744-1811),  who  was  probably  the  best  of  Basedow 's 
associates  at  Dessau,  opened  at  Schnepfenthal  a  Philan- 
thropinum  that  was  by  far  the  most  successful  of 
the  many  imitations  of  Basedow 's  institution  which 
sprang  up  all  over  Germany.  It  continues  in  prosperous 
existence  to  the  present  day.  Salzmann 's  school  un- 
doubtedly anticipated  successfully  many  of  the  reforms 
afterwards  introduced  into  elementary  education  by 
Pestalozzi,  and  the  philanthropinic  movement  as  a  whole 
blazed  the  way  for  the  changes  with  which  the  name  of 
Pestalozzi  is  usually  associated. 

One  other  result  of  the  philanthropinic  movement  was 
the  literature  written  for  children  by  Basedow 's  associ- 
ates. Some  of  these  children's  books  were  excellent,  em- 

218 


EMOTIONAL  KEACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

bodying  the  new  educational  material  in  an  attractive 
form,  but  many  were  filled  with  tedious  moralizing  and 
sermonizing  in  childish  form.  They  inspired,  however, 
the  writing  of  the  * '  Swiss  Family  Robinson ' '  in  the  next 
generation,  which  is  familiar  to  the  children  of  every 
civilized  land,  and  they  were  the  direct  ancestors  of  the 
splendid  literature  for  children  with  which  education 
is  provided  today. 

The  Naturalists  and  the  Problem  of  Government  and 
Liberty. — How  do  the  naturalists  solve  the  ever  present 
problem  of  reconciling  individual  liberty  and  social  sta- 
bility? The  rationalists  had  ignored  the  importance  of 
institutional  control.  They  had  minimized  the  fact  that 
the  individual  is  born  into  society,  and  that  society  for 
its  own  preservation  had  developed  institutions  which  are 
necessary  to  its  growth  and  stability  but  which  are  re- 
strictions upon  the  freedom  of  individual  action.  Rous- 
seau and  his  adherents  went  further :  Rousseau 's  whole 
philosophy  of  society  and  education  was  based  upon  the 
exaltation  of  the  individual  above  society ;  the  anti-social 
education  of  Emtte,  removed  from  social  intercourse  and 
control,  aiming  at  development  not  only  by  himself,  but 
only  for  himself,  could  but  result  in  a  social  anarchist. 
The  Reign  of  Terror  was  the  natural  product  of  Rous- 
seau's teaching,  and  a  period  of  reconstruction  was 
necessary  in  society  and  education,  under  men  better 
qualified  than  he  to  realize  individuality  in  life  without 
destroying  social  bonds.  But  never  had  social  reliance 
upon  the  forces  of  mere  authority  and  tradition  re- 
ceived such  a  blow  as  that  dealt  by  Rousseau.  And  that 
blow  was  a  necessary  preliminary  to  any  sound  recon- 
struction that  would  attempt  to  harmonize  these  two 
aspects  of  human  life. 


219 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Rousseau,  Basedow, 
Naturalism,  Philanthropinum,  etc. 

BOYD,  W.    The  Educational  Theory  of  Rousseau. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chaps.  XXIII-XXV. 

DAVIDSON,  T.    Rousseau  and  Education  According  to  Nature. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.    A  History  of  Education.    Vol.  IH.    Chap. 

i-n. 

MONROE,  P.  A  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  X. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  A  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education. 
Chap.  IX. 

QUICK,  R.  H.    Educational  Reformers.    Chaps.  XIV-XV. 

ROUSSEAU,  J.  J.  Emile.  Translated  by  Payne.  Appleton 
edition. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Name  five  natural  instincts   of  the  child  upon  which 
education  builds  today.       Of  what  use  in  the  disciplining  of 
pupils  is  a  teacher's  knowledge  of  the  instincts  of  children? 
Illustrate. 

2.  Can  the  education  of  the  average  American  school  be 
profitably  made  more  "negative"  today? 

3.  To  what  extent  can  the  school  today  build  upon  "the 
discipline  of  consequences"? 

4.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  Montaigne,  Locke,  and  Rous- 
seau form  a  natural  sequence.    Point  out  wherein  their  views 
agree,  and  where  they  do  not  agree. 

5.  Did  Rousseau's  preaching  result  in  more  attention  to 
the  feelings  in  education?    If  so,  how;  if  not,  why  not? 

6.  Was  the  education  of  Emile  calculated  to  develop  a 
strong  will? 

7.  Was  Rousseau  justified  in  his  emphasis  upon  country 
life  as  essential  to  the  education  of  the  child? 

220 


EMOTIONAL  REACTION  AGAINST  FORMALISM 

8.  Does  Rousseau's  denunciation  of  book  work  hold  true 
in  our  education  today? 

9.  We  have  many  instances  of  the  country  boy  seeking  his 
fortune  in  the  city  and  succeeding.    Would  that  be  the  prob- 
able fate  of  a  country  boy  educated  like  Emilef 

10.  Is  education  today  founded  upon  the  belief  that  men 
and  women  are  "by  nature"  different? 

11.  What  success  has  accompanied  the  introduction  into 
our  schools  of  the  "natural"  method  of  teaching  languages? 

12.  Was  the  education  of  Emile  a  "cheat,"  as  Davidson 
says,  because  Emile  was  unwittingly  led  into  knowledge  by  his 
tutor? 

13.  Why  did  Rousseau,  who  built  his  education  upon  ex- 
perience, give  so  little  place  to  the  experience  of  others  as 
embodied  in  literature,  history,  institutions? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PSYCHOLOGIZING   EDUCATION— THE  METHODIZEBS, 
PESTALOZZI,  HEBBABT,  FBOEBEL 

Outline. — The  psychological  movement  was  based  upon  child 
study  and,  as  one  result,  elementary  education  became  the  chief 
concern  of  those  engaged  in  either  the  theory  or  the  practice  of 
education.  It  led  to  better  methods  of  teaching,  better  train- 
ing of  teachers,  and  a  better  understanding  of  the  educational 
process.  These  results  came  from  the  work  of  a  number  of 
reformers,  chief  among  whom  were  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and 
Froebel. 

A.  Pestalozzi^  Pestalozzi's  career  falls  naturally  into  three 
periods:  (1)  The  period  of  experiment  with  industrial  educa- 
tion at  Neuhof.  (2)  The  period  of  literary  activity  for  social 
and  educational  reform,  in  which  he  published  "Leonard  and 
Gertrude"  and  "How  Gertrude  Teaches  Her  Children."  (3) 
The  period  of  reform  in  teaching  elementary  school  subjects. 
This  work  he  carried  on  -at  Burgdorf  and  Yverdon. 

Pestalozzi  considered  sense-perception  to  be  the  real  founda- 
tion of  our  knowledge,  and  observation  the  basis  of  all  in- 
struction. He  aimed  to  analyze  knowledge  in  each  of  the 
elementary  subjects  into  its  simplest  elements  and  to  proceed 
by  a  graduated  series  of  exercises  to  what  was  more  complex 
and  difficult.  While  unscientific  in  his  work,  Pestalozzi  initiated 
a  movement  which  resulted  in  great  changes  in  the  aim,  spirit, 
and  methods  of  elementary  education. 

Pestalozzi  never  returned  to  the  problem  of  combining  in- 
dustrial with  intellectual  education  after  the  failure  of  the 
experiment  at  Neuhof;  but  his  friend  Fellenberg  solved  it 
with  great  success  at  Hof wyl,  Switzerland,  and  his  institutes 
were  copied  in  many  places  in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

222 

FroeJtel 


/o 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

B.  Herbart.       Herbart  makes  character  the  end  of  edu- 
cation; it  is  to  be  secured  by  the  development  of  a  many- 
Sided  interest.    Man's  interests  come  from  his  experience  with 
things   and~~his  intercourse  with   people;   hence   the  need  of 
scientific   subjects   and   of   historical   subjects,   the   latter   of 
which  are   the  more  important.     The  mind  of  the  pupil  is 
largely  the  result  of  the  teacher's  instruction,  which  —  to  be 
educative  —  should  be  based  upon  apperception,  should  follow 
certain  formal  steps  of  the  recitation,  and  conform  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  correlation  of  subjects.     Herbart's  disciple,  Ziller,  de- 
veloped  the   principle   of   correlation   into   the   culture-epoch 
theory,  and  with  others  assisted  in  the  spread  of  Herbartianism 
in   Germany.     Herbartianism   has  had  a   profound  influence 
upon  the  content  and  methods  of  teaching  in  the  United  States. 

C.  Froebel.       Froebel  states  the  aim  of  education  to  be 
the  d€vdojrjm£iiL^o^  the__jnJK)rn  capacities  and  powers  of  the 
child.     Self-activity  or  motor-expression  is  the  method  of  'de- 
velopment, and  social  participation  is  the  means  of  develop- 
ment.    These   principles  Froebel   attempted   to  realize  in   a 
new    institution,    the  ^kinder  -garten,,    by    using    the    materials 
known  as  play-songs,  gifts,  and  occupations.     The  mysticism 
and   symbolism   which   characterized   Froebel's   education   re- 
tarded its  expansion  at  first;  but  the  most  important  streams 
of  thought  in  present  elementary  education  flow  from  Froebel  ; 
and  his  institution,  the  kindergarten,  has  spread  thru  Europe 
and  the  United  States. 

Characteristics  of  the  Psychological  Movement.  —  It  has 
been  seen  that  Rousseau  struck  a  new  note  in  educa- 
tion, in  that  he  proclaimed  that  education  was  essentially 
a  matter  of  the  free  and  unrestricted  development  of 
the  powers  implanted  in  the  individual  by  nature.  It 
has  also  been  seen  that  this  view  was  a  reaction  against 
the  prevailing  disciplinary  conception  that  the  indi- 
vidual is  by  nature  bad  and  must  be  fashioned  into  a  dif- 
ferent being  thru  human  nurture.  What  was  needed 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

was  a  reconciliation  of  these  two  views — that  education 
was  a  matter  of  human  nurture,  and  that  it  was  a  matter 
of  natural  development — each  of  which  contained  ele- 
ments of  truth.  This  reconciliation  was  impossible  so 
long  as  the  idea  prevailed  that  the  mind  was  something 
distinct  from  the  body,  that  it  had  somehow  become 
lodged  in  it  but  was  not  of  it.  Such  a  view  necessitated 
that  all  discussion  of  mental  phenomena  be  metaphysical 
and  speculative.  But  as  the  result  of  the  start  given 
by  Rousseau  the  conviction  of  the  intimate  relation  be- 
tween mind  and  body  gradually  became  accepted.  This 
meant  that  mental  phenomena  could  be  understood  not 
by  means  of  metaphysical  speculation  but  chiefly  thru 
careful  observation  and  experiment;  and  that  education 
must  be  organized  upon  the  results  of  such  study.  Pesta- 
lozzi,  who  had  but  a  faint  glimmer  of  the  truth,  groped 
towards  it  in  a  purely  empirical  way.  Herbart  is  the 
turning  point  in  the  psychological  movement,  because, 
tho  time  and  more  precise  knowledge  have  made  it  neces- 
sary to  modify  his  conclusions,  nevertheless  he  based 
them  upon  a  scientific  study  of  the  mind.  But  the  old 
conception  of  education  was  so  thoroly  intrenched  in  the 
school  that  the  history  of  education  in  the  nineteenth 
century  is  the  story  of  the  conflict  between  the  place  of 
nature  and  that  of  nurture  in  education,  or,  phrased  in 
its  later  form,  between  the  education  "of  interest "  and 
the  education  ' '  of  effort. ' '  It  remained  for  John  Dewey 
at  the  close  of  the  century  to  indicate  the  basis  of  the 
hoped-for  reconciliation.  The  psychological  movement 
concerned  itself  primarily  with  the  nature  of  the  mind 
and  its  workings.  Hence  it  brought  about  not  so  much 
changes  in  the  subject  matter  of  education,  nor  in  its 
proper  organization  and  administration  (tho  these  were 
concomitants  of  the  movement) ,  but  rather  it  led  to  bet- 

224 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

ter  methods 'of  teaching,  better  training  of  teachers,  and 
a  better  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  educational 
process.  Moreover,  because  the  movement  was  based 
upon  child  study,  elementary  education  for  the  first  time 
supplanted  secondary  education  as  the  chief  concern  of 
those  engaged  in  either  the  theory  or  the  practice  of 
education. 

A.     THE  PESTALOZZIAN  MOVEMENT 

f    i 

Career  of  Pestalozzi  (1746-1827).— The  first  of  the 
men  inspired  by  Rousseau  who  attempted,  as  he  him- 
self expressed  it,  "to  psychologize "  education  was 
Johann  Heinrich  Pestalozzi.  It  is  probably  more  neces- 
sary to  study  his  career  than  that  of  most  educators,  be- 
cause his  principles  are  the  direct  outgrowth  of  his  ex- 
periences. He  was  born  in  the  Swiss  town  of  Zurich 
in  1746.  Altho  his  mother  was  left  a  widow  when  he 
was  but  five  years  old,  by  her  thrift  and  intelligence  she 
was  able  to  send  him  thru  the  vernacular  and  Latin 
schools  and  the  university.  The  Tovmg  but  well-regu- 
lated home  life  that  characterized  his  childhood  made  a 
deep  impression  upon  him  and  inspired  him  to  make  it 
the  spirit  that  should  dominate  the  schoolroom.  Under 
the  influence  of  his  grandfather,  the  pastor  of  a  neigh- 
boring town,  he  studied  to  be  a  minister,  but  was  un- 
successful. He  was  much  impressed  by  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  unfortunate  peasants  and  afterwards 
studied  law  in  order  to  become  their  champion.  Upon 
the  publication  of  the  "Emile"  and  the  "Social  Con- 
tract, ' '  like  so  many  of  the  young  Swiss  patriots  he  was 
inspired  to  revolutionary  propaganda  and  came  into 
conflict  with  the  government.  This  first  period  of  his 
life  ended  in  1769,  when  he  married  the  beautiful  and 

225 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

intelligent  daughter  of  a  Zurich  merchant,  who  from 
that  moment  until  her  death  was  his  strongest  support 
in  time  of  trouble  and  discouragement.  From  the  date 
of  his  marriage  until  his  death  in  1827  Pestalozzi 's  life 
falls  naturally  into  three  periods:  (1)  the  period  of 
experiment  in  industrial  education  for  juvenile  delin- 
quents (1774-1780)  ;  (2)  the  period  of  literary  activity 
for  social  and  educational  reform  (1780-1798) ;  (3)  the 
period  of  reform  in  the  teaching  of  elementary  school 
subjects  (1798-1827). 

1.  The  Neuhof  Experiment. — When  Pestalozzi  was 
married  in  176,%  he  bought  a  farm  which  he  called 
Neuhof ;  and  in  1774  he  determined  to  attempt  to  realize 
upon  it  one  of  the  important  principles  of  the  naturalists, 
viz.,  that  the  character  of  the  individual  is  shaped  by 
environment  and  that  the  character  will  be  good  in 
proportion  to  the  extent  that  the  environment  is  natural. 
Pestalozzi  had  already  written  his  "Journal  of  a 
Father/'  which  was  the  result  of  his  experiment  in  at- 
tempting to  bring  up  his  young  son  according  to  the 
principles  of  Rousseau.  He  had  discovered  that  those 
principles  would  need  much  modification  in  practice  and 
rightly  concluded  that  the  most  natural  environment  for 
a  child  was  a  home  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  strict  but 
loving  discipline.  He  determined,  therefore,  to  take  in 
some  twenty  vagrant  children  of  both  sexes  and  so  or- 
ganize their  daily  life  that  they  could  support  them- 
selves by  industrial  work  while  receiving  an  elementary 
education  in  reading,  writing,  and  ciphering  and  while 
living  under  the  best  moral  and  religious  influences  of 
a  good  home.  The  boys  learned  practical  farm  work  and 
the  girls  household  work,  and  both  were  taught  spinning 
and  weaving.  Tho  there  was  no  direct  relation  between 
the  industrial  work  and  the  formal  instruction,  the  ex- 

226 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

periment  was  a  great  success  in  showing  the  inspiring  in- 
fluence of  properly  organized  manual  work  as  a  supple- 
ment to  formal  instruction.  The  improvement  in  the 
mental,  moral,  and  physical  condition  of  the  children 
was  remarkable.  It  encouraged  Pestalozzi  to  increase  the 
number  of  children  until  there  were  eighty,  too  many  for 
either  his  executive  or  his  financial  ability,  even  tho  he 
had  the  assistance  of  friends.  In  1780  the  experiment 
had  to  be  given  up  because  of  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
reformer. 

2.  The  Period  of  Literary  Activity. — The  next  eight- 
een years  of  Pestalozzi 's  life  were  devoted  chiefly  to 
literary  work  in  the  cause  of  social  and  educational  re- 
form, and  incidentally  for  the  support  of  his  family.  He 
was  naturally  much  interested  in  the  French  Revolution, 
and  tho  at  first  fearful  of  its  influence  upon  Switzerland, 
he  eventually  became  a  strong  propagandist  for  the  revo- 
lutionary principles,  writing  many  pamphlets  with  the 
idea,  usually,  of  educational  reform  as  the  necessary 
precursor  of  social  reform.  Early  in  this  period,  in  1781, 
he  wrote  the  most  famous  of  his  books,  "Leonard  and 
Gertrude."  Like  Rousseau's  "Emile,"  the  book  was 
written  in  the  form  of  a  novel  to  teach  a  great  lesson  in 
social  and  educational  reform.  It  describes  the  degraded 
condition  of  the  peasantry  of  Bonnal,  a  fictitious  village 
of  Switzerland,  which  is  gradually  transformed  thru 
the  influence  of  a  peasant  woman,  Gertrude.  By  her  de- 
votion and  skill  she  succeeds  in  reforming  her  drunken 
husband  Leonard,  in  educating  her  children,  in  inspir- 
ing her  neighbors  by  her  example,  and  in  attracting  the 
attention  of  the  authorities  to  her  reforming  work,  until 
they  are  convinced  that  it  is  the  way  whereby  the  coun- 
try as  a  whole  can  be  redeemed.  As  a  "book  for  people" 
it  failed,  since  the  great  mass  of  them  could  not  read; 

227 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

but  it  was  enthusiastically  received  by  the  intelligent 
public  of  Europe,  ready  at  that  time  for  any  suggestion 
for  social  reform.  Pestalozzi,  however,  was  convinced 
that  the  public  read  the  book  merely  as  a  novel  and 
missed  its  educational  significance.  He  accordingly 
wrote  several  continuations  of  it  to  give  in  greater  de- 
tail his  educational  ideas,  but  the  additions  oiever  in- 
terested the  public  in  the  same  way  as  the  original. 

3.  Pestalozzi's  Experiments  in  Elementary  School 
Methods. — a.  Stanz. — In  1798  a  complete  change 
took  place  in  Pestalozzi's  career;  from  theorizing  about 
educational  reform  he  took  to  practicing  it.  In  that 
year  the  French  troops  massacred  the  inhabitants  of 
Stanz,  and  the  government  asked  Pestalozzi  to  establish 
an  institution  in  an  old  convent  to  care  for  the  orphans 
left  destitute  by  the  massacre.  Pestalozzi  started  out 
with  the  idea  which  he  had  attempted  to  realize  at  Neu- 
hof,  viz.,  to  establish  an  industrial  school  for  poor  chil- 
dren in  which  the  emphasis  would  be  placed  upon  the 
manual  work,  with  a  few  additional  hours  of  formal 
teaching.  But  difficulties  arose  on  every  side.  The  win- 
ter was  most  severe,  and  there  was  no  equipment  to  carry 
on  the  practical  work  in  industry.  The  emphasis  of  ne- 
cessity was  shifted  to  the  work  of  instruction,  but  there 
were  neither  books,  equipment,  nor  assistants.  Pestalozzi, 
therefore,  devoted  most  of  his  attention  to  oral  teaching 
in  number  and  language  work  by  means  of  objects,  and 
in  geography  and  nature  study  by  means  of  conversa- 
tions. The  change  for  the  better  in  the  eighty  children 
committed  to  his  care  was  remarkable ;  but  the  experiment 
was  brought  to  an  end  in  six  months  by  the  return  of 
the  French  troops,  who  demanded  the  convent  for  mili- 
tary purposes.  This  was  fortunate  for  Pestalozzi,  for 
his  health  was  almost  ruined  by  his  incessant  labors. 

228 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

The  half-year  at  Stanz  marks  the  transition  from  his 
interest  in  industrial  education  to  the  work  of  reforming 
the  methods  of  teaching  the  ordinary  subjects  of  the  ele- 
mentary school. 

b.  Burgdorf  (1799-1804).— After  the  recovery  of  his 
health,  Pestalozzi  spent  five  years  at  Burgdorf,  where 
he  did  the  finest  and  most  original  work  in  reforming 
elementary  education.    At  first  he  was  engaged  in  the 
village  school  as  assistant  to  the  shoemaker  who  was  the 
head  teacher,  but  he  lost  his  position  because  of  his  new 
methods.     Fortunately,  Pestalozzi 's  friends  secured  for 
him  the  use  of  part  of  the  old  Burgdorf  castle  and  its 
garden.     There  he  associated  with  himself  five  or  six 
splendid  teachers,  who  remained  his  devoted  adherents. 
He  took  a  considerable  number  of  boarding  pupils,  as 
well  as  day  scholars,  and  maintained  an  institute  for  the 
training  of  teachers,  for  all  of  which  he  received  some 
governmental  support  in  addition  to  voluntary  subscrip- 
tions.   It  was  during  these  years  that  he  worked  out  the 
significance  of  the  use  of  objects  in  the  teaching  of  lan- 
guage, geography,  and  elementary  arithmetic  and  science. 
In  1801  he  published  his  most  important  pedagogical 
work,  "How  Gertrude  Teaches  Her  Children,"  which  is 
not,  as  might  seem,  a  continuation  of  the  career  of  Ger- 
trude, who  is  not  mentioned  in  it;  it  consists  of  a  num- 
ber of  letters  to  a  friend,  describing  his  educational 
principles.     The  school  at  Burgdorf  aroused  intense  in- 
terest among  philanthropists  and  educators ;  but  in  1805 
the  government  needed  the  building  for  official  purposes, 
and  Pestalozzi  was  compelled  to  move. 

c.  Yverdon  (1805-1825).— The  Institute  at  Yverdon 
carried   on   for  twenty   years   the   experimental   work 
begun  at  Burgdorf  and  was  even  more  famous  than  the 
latter,  being  visited  by  teachers  and  laymen  from  all 

229 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

over  Europe.  Observational  work  upon  concrete  ma- 
terials was  made  the  basis  of  the  simplification  of  meth- 
ods in  all  the  elementary  subjects.  Textbooks  were  com- 
piled and  teachers  trained  to  spread  Pestalozzi  ?s  methods 
in  the  chief  European  countries,  and  governmental 
agents  and  committees  made  investigations  with  a  view 
to  official  approval  or  disapproval.  The  best  work  at 
Yverdon  was  done  during  the  first  five  years ;  after  that 
dissensions  arose  among  the  assistants,  efficiency  dimin- 
ished, support  was  gradually  withdrawn,  and  the  Insti- 
tute was  finally  closed  in  1825.  Pestalozzi^  withdrew  to 
his  old  home  at  Neuhof ,  where  he  died  two  years  later. 

Influence  of  Pestalozzi  on  Education. — Until  compara- 
tively recently  it  was  common  to  overestimate  the  im- 
portance of  Pestalozzi  in  the  history  of  educational  de- 
velopment by  attributing  to  him  the  entire  reform  move- 
ment of  the  early  nineteenth  century.  His  own  work  was 
characterized  by  some  absurdities,  such  as  the  practice  of 
memorizing  long  lists  of  words  in  language  work,  which 
was  wholly  inconsistent  with  his  fundamental  principle 
of  basing  all  teaching  upon  sense-perception.  Moreover, 
many  of  the  best  ideas  and  methods  usually  ascribed  to 
him  were  the  result  of  the  work  of  his  able  and  devoted 
associates.  But  when  all  his  deficiencies  are  admitted, 
the  impartial  student  must  conclude  that  he  is  the  start- 
ing point  of  modern  pedagogy,  in  that  he  substituted  ex- 
perimentation for  tradition  in  classroom  practice. 

1.  On  the  Aim  of  Education. — Pestalozzi  held  with 
many  of  the  other  innovators  that  the  purpose  of  edu- 
cation was  to  bring  about  a  reformed  society  character- 
ized by  virtue  in  the  individual  and  justice  in  the  state. 
But  unlike  most  of  the  preceding  reformers  he  main- 
tained that  this  could  only  be  accomplished  when  every 
individual,  however  poor  and  humble,  had  been  properly 

230 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

educated.  His  advocacy  of  universal  education  had  no 
ulterior  motive,  as  was  the  case  with  the  religious  re- 
formers, but  was  due  to  his  belief  that  it  was  the  right 
of  every  child.  The  evolution  of  the  masses  from  their 
wretched  condition  would  be  secured  only  when  the  edu- 
cation of  each  individual  consisted  in  *  '  the  natural,  pro- 
gressive, and  harmonious  development  of  all  his  powers 
and  faculties."  This  could  not  be  accomplished  by  the 
prevailing  system,  wherein  the  chief  aim  was  the  me- 
chanical memorizing  of  forms  without  the  understanding 
of  content.  On  the  contrary,  the  natural  development 
of  the  mind  demanded  new  methods  and  new  materials 
of  instruction,  and  it  was  in  this  connection  that  Pesta- 
lozzi  made  his  greatest  contribution  to  educational  re- 
form. 

2.  On  the  Content  and  Methods  of  Teaching.— (a)  The 
Object  Lesson  and  Oral  Instruction. — The  reason  why 
Pestalozzi  was  so  bitterly  opposed  to  the  prevailing  edu- 
cation of  his  day  was  that  he  considered  sense-perception 
to  be  the  real  foundation  of  our  knowledge,  and  observa- 
tion the  basis  of  all  instruction.  Hence  his  emphasis 
upon  the  object  lesson  and  oral  teaching,  which  were  the 
methods  by  which  he  tried  to  carry  out  the  principles  of 
Rousseau.  Pestalozzi  insisted  that  the  prevailing  method 
of  studying  the  book  and  reproducing  it  filled  the  child 's 
mind  with  either  hazy  ideas  or  mere  words,  whereas 
teaching  thru  observation  of  objective  material  within 
the  child's  experience  gave  him  clear  ideas  and  trained 
him  in  oral  expression:  not  to  gain  knowledge  of  the 
object  studied,  as  with  Comenius,  but  to  train  the  powers 
of  the  mind,  of  expression  as  well  as  of  impression,  was 
the  aim.  Incidentally  the  object  lesson  might  transform 
the  teacher  from  a  passive  hearer  of  recitations  to  an 
active  agent  in  the  mental  development  of  the  child,  thru 

231 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

questioning  and  thru  properly  organizing  the  materials 
of  instruction.  With  Pestalozzi  the  object  lesson  was  in- 
formal, and  only  ordinary  objects  within  the  child's  ex- 
perience were  used  for  the  purpose.  Some  of  his  suc- 
cessors, however,  so  systematized  object  teaching  as  to 
make  it  very  formal  and,  in  the  hands  of  an  unenthusi- 
astic  teacher,  wholly  lifeless.  This  systematic  object 
teaching  was  the  bridge  to  the  elementary  science  that 
became  an  integral  part  of  the  school  curriculum  in  the 
later  nineteenth  century ;  this,  in  turn,  in  the  twentieth 
century  yielded  to  nature  study,  which  subordinates  sci- 
entific classification  to  a  study  of  natural  objects  having 
an  intrinsic  interest  for  the  child,  apart  from  their  re- 
lation to  organized  science. 

(b)  From  the  Simple  to  the  Complex. — In  using  ob- 
jective materials  in  each  subject  to  develop  sense-percep- 
tion and  oral  expression,  Pestalozzi  tried  to  analyze 
knowledge  in  that  subject  into  its  simplest  elements  and 
to  proceed  by  a  graduated  series  of  exercises  to  what 
was  more  complex  and  difficult. 

Arithmetic  up  to  his  time  had  consisted  in  "  cipher- 
ing" according  to  the  most  mechanical  methods.  Pesta- 
lozzi did  away  with  this  by  postponing  all  written  work 
until  the  child  had  made  considerable  progress  in  the 
subject,  and  he  substituted  mental  or  oral  arithmetic 
for  it.  Moreover,  to  make  sure  that  the  child  was  getting 
real  ideas  of  number  instead  of  mere  words,  all  the  ele- 
mentary arithmetical  combinations  were  learned  as  the 
result  of  combining  and  separating  objects,  lines,  and 
dots,  instead  of  being  merely  memorized. 

Geography  had  a  place  in  the  curriculum  of  few  schools 
previous  to  Pestalozzi ;  and  when  it  had,  its  study  con- 
sisted chiefly  in  the  memorizing  of  bare  facts.  Tho  Pesta- 
lozzi himself  was  not  without  fault  in  this  respect,  he 

232 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

aimed  at  beginning  with  home  geography,  so  as  to  show 
the  influence  of  physiographic  conditions  upon  human 
activities  and  development.  The  school  yard,  the  vil- 
lage, the  valley  of  the  neighboring  river  furnished  the 
necessary  knowledge  for  the  understanding  of  the  map 
upon  which  they  were  placed  after  personal  observation. 
From  these  simple  beginnings  the  child  was  to  be  led,  at 
least  in  theory,  to  a  knowledge  of  the  entire  earth  and 
its  relation  to  man. 

Pestalozzi  made  a  great  advance  in  teaching  children 
to  speak,  i.  e.,  in  developing  oral  composition  by  having 
the  children  express  their  observations  of  objects,  de- 
signs, and  actions.  But  in  the  desire  to  make  use  of  his 
principle  "from  the  simple  to  the  complex,"  he  often 
made  the  work  very  formal  and  stereotyped.  The  basis 
of  his  teaching  of  reading  was  the  * '  syllabaries, ' '  such  as 
ab,  eb,  ib,  ob,  ub,  etc.;  the  children  were  drilled  in  all 
the  possible  combinations  of  vowels  and  consonants  be- 
fore they  proceeded  to  study  words  and  sentences.  It 
was  a  synthetic  method,  which  violated  the  principle  of 
going  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  i.  e.,  from  the 
sentence,  which  the  children  already  used,  to  the  letter, 
which  was  an  arbitrary  symbol. 

In  accordance  with  his  principle  of  reducing  every- 
thing to  its  lowest  terms,  to  the  "A  B  C  of  observa- 
tion," Pestalozzi  refused  to  have  children  copy  designs 
or  even  draw  from  the  model.  Drawing,  to  which  great 
attention  was  paid,  was  to  consist  first  in  learning  the 
simple  elements  of  form,  viz.,  lines,  angles,  and  curves, 
and  then  by  many  exercises  in  combinations  to  make  the 
various  geometrical  figures  and  original  designs.  Writ- 
ing was  taught  as  a  form  of  drawing,  the  letters  being 
analyzed  into  their  various  elements,  the  straight  line, 
the  curved  line,  the  slanting  line,  etc.,  much  drill  being 

233 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

given  upon  these  elements  before  the  child  proceeded  to 
write  the  letters  themselves  or  words  and  sentences. 

Pestalozzi's  general  principle  of  method  was  to  organ- 
ize an  alphabet  of  every  subject  and  then  proceed  by 
carefully  graded  exercises,  each  of  which  was  to  be  thor- 
oly  mastered  before  going  to  the  next,  to  a  good  un- 
derstanding of  the  whole  subject.  Tho  this  sound  gen- 
eral principle  was  frequently  overdone  in  practice,  it 
was  a  great  advance  on  the  method  it  superseded  of  be- 
ginning with  memorizing  the  rules,  forms,  and  relations 
upon  which  the  subject  was  based.  Tremendous  strides 
have  been  made  in  the  arrangement  of  textbooks  in  lan- 
guage work,  geography,  arithmetic,  and  the  elementary 
subjects  generally  since  Pestalozzi's  day,  and  these  im- 
provements undoubtedly  received  their  inspiration  from 
his  efforts. 

3.  On  the  Spirit  that  Should  Pervade  the  School- 
room.— Many  of  Pestalozzi's  ideas  had  been  anticipated 
by  previous  educators,  and  some  of  his  practices  were  in- 
consistent with  his  theories;  but  in  one  respect  he  was 
almost  unique,  viz.,  in  his  demonstration  of  the  fact  that 
the  only  right  relation  between  pupil  and  teacher  was  one 
based  on  love  and  sympathy.  To  understand  this  prop- 
erly one  must  remember  the  kind  of  place  the  elementary 
schoolroom  of  the  day  was.  When  there  was  a  school 
building,  it  was  usually  poorly  built,  unsanitary,  and 
badly  equipped.  Often  the  school  was  "kept"  in  the 
home  of  the  teacher,  the  teacher  even  being  selected, 
sometimes,  because  he  had  a  better  room  than  his  com- 
petitors. Without  knowledge  or  experience,  and  re- 
ceiving wretched  pay,  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  aver- 
age teacher  considered  his  work  to  be  that  of  compelling 
the  child  to  learn  by  rote  his  letters,  his  numbers,  and 
his  catechism,  and  that  he  sat  with  ferule  in  hand  as  an 

234 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

incentive  to  study  and  good  behavior?  The  schoolroom 
was  a  place  of  terror;  Pestalozzi  changed  it  to  a  place 
of  joy.  The  importance  of  respecting  the  individuality 
of  the  child  naturally  followed  from  the  principle  that 
education  should  aim  at  mental  development,  not  at  mem- 
orizing rules  and  facts;  and  it  brought  as  a  result  in 
practice  a  friendly  and  trusting  attitude  toward  the 
teacher  upon  the  part  of  the  pupil.  Pestalozzi  never  for- 
got the  loving  spirit  of  his  childhood  home,  and  one 
of  his  chief  purposes  was  to  have  the  schoolroom  approxi- 
mate as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  conditions  of  the  home. 
Certainly  in  basing  his  own  discipline  upon  the  principle 
of  love  he  secured  marvelous  results.  Unfortunately  not 
all  the  schoolrooms  of  our  own  day  are  governed  by  his 
spirit. 

4.  On  Industrial  Education. — It  will  be  remembered 
that,  beginning  with  his  work  at  Stanz  in  1798,  Pestalozzi 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  reforming  the  methods  of 
teaching  the  elementary  subjects  and  never  returned  to 
his  earlier  work  at  Neuhof,  which  had  for  its  aim  the  or- 
ganization of  industriaT~education  for  juvenile  reform. 
But  he  had  interested  another  man,  Emanuel  von  Fellen- 
berg  (1771-1844),  who  was  destined  to  carry  out  Pesta- 
lozzi 's  idea  in  one  of  the  most  remarkable  educational  ex- 
periments of  the  nineteenth  century.  Fellenberg  came  of 
noble  and  wealthy  parentage  and  was  wholly  imbued 
with  Pestalozzi 's  thought  that  the  wretched  condition 
of  the  Swiss  peasantry  could  be  improved  only  by  means 
of  a  new  education.  When  Pestalozzi  was  compelled  to 
give  up  his  school  at  Burgdorf  in  1804,  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Fellenberg  and  they  established  a  school  at 
Miinchenbuchsee.  But  Fellenberg  was  essentially  a  prac- 
tical administrator,  and  Pestalozzi  could  not  endure  his 
businesslike  organization.  They  separated  with  mutual 

235 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

good  will,  Pestalozzi  establishing  his  school  at  Yverdon 
and  Fellenberg  establishing  his  "  Institute "  at  Hofwyl, 
near  Berne,  where  from  1806  to  1844  he  developed  his 
ideas  in  industrial  education. 

Fellenberg's  Schools  at  Hofwyl. — Fellenberg  aimed  to 
do  three  things  at  Hofwyl :  (1)  To  carry  out  the  Pesta- 
lozzian  idea  of  giving  to  the  children  of  the  poor  an  in- 
dustrial education  and  at  the  same  time  the  elements  of 
an  intellectual  education.  (2)  To  realize  the  philan- 
thropinic  idea  of  educating  the  children  of  the  rich  and 
of  the  poor  together,  in  order  to  develop  a  mutual  sym- 
pathy and  understanding.  (3)  To  train  teachers  for  the 
common  schools,  especially  in  the  rural  districts.  Fellen- 
berg was  a  most  efficient  organizer  and  established  the 
various  parts  of  his  plan  gradually,  never  undertaking  a 
new  element  until  he  had  demonstrated  the  success  of 
the  one  previously  attempted. 

His  fundamental  idea  was  to  meet  the  industrial  needs 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  which  were  chiefly  agricultural ; 
hence  the  first  institution  established  at  Hofwyl  was  an 
agricultural  school,  where  the  children  of  the  peasants 
were  taught  on  his  estate  of  six  hundred  acres  primarily 
the  principles  of  intelligent  farming  and  their  practical 
application.  As  the  education  was  intensely  practical, 
workshops  to  train  mechanics  in  all  the  needs  of  farm 
life  were  established.  From  the  beginning  he  invited 
the  sons  of  wealthy  landowners  to  the  school,  with  the 
idea  of  educating  them  in  intelligent  supervision  of  their 
estates,  but  they  remained  so  short  a  time  that  he  felt 
he  was  not  accomplishing  his  aim.  Hence  he  established 
a  literary  institute  where  the  ordinary  classical  education 
was  given,  but  as  far  as  possible  Pestalozzian  methods 
were  used  and  physical  training  was  encouraged.  More- 
over the  pupils  in  the  literary  institute  engaged  in  farm 

236 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

labor  and  technical  work,  and  thereby  came  into  sympa- 
thetic understanding  of  the  children  of  the  poor  in  the 
agricultural  school.  A  printing  press  worked  by  peasant 
boys  who  were  trained  in  that  art  supplied  the  literature 
and  music  needed.  A  school  for  girls  and  a  kind  of 
Realschule  to  give  a  practical  education  in  middle-class 
occupations  were  also  established.  In  all  these  institu- 
tions teachers  were  trained,  and  for  a  time  all  the  teach- 
ers of  Berne  received  their  preparation  at  Hofwyl. 

The  great  success  of  Hofwyl  gave  an  impetus  to  agri- 
cultural and  industrial  education  in  western  Europe  and 
in  the  United  States.  In  Switzerland  every  canton  soon 
had  its  farm  school,  and  most  normal  schools  introduced 
some  form  of  industrial  education.  In  Germany,  France, 
and  England  industrial  education  was  introduced  into 
many  reform  schools,  as  the  best  training  for  juvenile  de- 
linquents, and  into  orphanages  as  a  practical  preparation 
for  life  work.  In  the  United  States  industrial  education 
has  gone  thru  three  phases:  (1)  As  the  result  of  many 
reports  upon  Fellenberg's  establishment  there  were 
founded  between  1825  and  1850  "manual  labor  insti- 
tutes" all  over  the  United  States.  They  were  organized 
to  provide  a  higher  education  along  literary  lines,  the 
industrial  feature  being  introduced  to  provide  an  oppor- 
tunity for  self-support  for  poor  students  and  at  the  same 
time  to  secure  physical  exercise  as  the  necessary  basis  for 
intellectual  work.  As  the  wealth  of  the  country  in- 
creased and  formal  social  intercourse  developed,  the  in- 
dustrial element  was  gradually  given  up;  and  by  the 
opening  of  the  Civil  War  most  of  the  schools  and  col- 
leges, such  as  Oberlin,  that  had  begun  as  ' '  manual  train- 
ing institutes"  had  become  purely  literary.  (2)  The 
organization  of  industrial  education  for  juvenile  reform 
did  not  secure  much  appreciation  in  the  United  States 

237 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

until  the  late  seventies.  The  early  reformatories  were 
organized  on  prison  principles ;  and  altho  they  provided 
industrial  work,  it  was  not  for  educational  purposes  but 
was  prison-contract  labor  to  make  money  for  the  institu- 
tion. In  the  eighties  the  movement  to  substitute  Pesta- 
lozzian  educative  labor  for  prison-contract  labor  received 
a  great  impetus  and  was  accompanied  by  a  movement  in 
social  reform  circles  to  substitute  the  cottage  plan  with 
the  spirit  of  family  life  for  the  one  big  building  with  the 
spirit  of  institutional  life.  Industrial  education  for  the 
reform  of  juvenile  delinquents  proved  so  efficacious  that 
it  was  rapidly  adopted  by  those  interested  in  the  educa- 
tion of  defectives,  such  as  deaf-mutes,  the  blind,  the 
feeble-minded.  (3)  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Pestalozzian 
industrial  education  in  the  United  States  has  been  de- 
scribed hitherto  in  connection  with  special  institutions 
but  not  in  connection  with  the  public  school  system.  This 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  latter  the  Froebelian  move- 
ment had  resulted  in  the  introduction  of  manual  train- 
ing, which  emphasized  general  training  as  against  spe- 
cial efficiency  in  some  trade.  Recently,  dissatisfaction 
has  been  found  with  manual  training  as  a  means  of  gen- 
eral training,  and  the  industrial  education  movement 
which  is  receiving  most  general  support  at  present  has 
as  its  aim  to  train  in  specific  trade  processes — a  Pesta- 
lozzian principle. 

Spread  of  Pestalozzianism. — The  publication  of  "Leon- 
ard and  Gertrude,"  the  reports  of  the  training  received 
by  the  many  teachers  who  studied  at  Burgdorf  and 
Yverdon,  the  observations  of  official  committees  and  un- 
official visitors  who  came  to  those  institutes  in  large 
numbers,  aroused  a  great  interest  in  Pestalozzi's  work 
in  many  of  the  European  countries  and  in  the  United 
States.  This  interest  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  Pesta- 

238 


239 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

lozzian  methods  in  very  many  places,  and  this  pro- 
foundly affected  educational  development. 

In  Switzerland. — Curiously  enough,  Switzerland,  the 
land  of  Pestalozzi's  nativity  and  activity,  was  slow  in 
profiting  by  his  experiments.  This  was  due  partly  to  re- 
ligious differences,  partly  to  the  more  generally  diffused 
knowledge  of  his  weaknesses,  and  partly  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  regarded  by  many  as  a  political  revolutionist. 
After  the  Revolution  of  1830,  however,  a  more  liberal  at- 
titude was  adopted,  and  Pestalozzian  methods  were 
brought  into  many  of  the  schools.  But  the  chief  influ- 
ence that  Pestalozzi  had  upon  Swiss  education  was  thru 
the  work  of  Fellenberg,  which  has  already  been  de- 
scribed. 

In  Germany. — Nowhere  has  Pestalozzianism  had  so 
profound  an  influence  as  in  Germany.  It  is  not  merely 
that  such  great  educators  as  Herbart  and  Froebel,  among 
many  others,  studied  at  Yverdon  and  became  Pestalozzi 's 
disciples,  but  that  Pestalozzianism  became  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  the  social  and  political  regeneration  of 
some  of  the  German  states,  especially  Prussia.  Even 
before  the  defeat  of  Prussia  by  Napoleon  at  Jena  in 
1806,  Pestalozzian  missionaries  had  made  great  headway 
in  advancing  their  cause.  After  that  event  Prussian 
statesmen  were  convinced  that  a  general  reform  move- 
ment to  improve  the  conditions  of  the  common  people 
was  necessary,  were  Prussia  to  hope  for  regeneration. 
Two  of  Pestalozzi 's  disciples  were  made  directors  of  pub- 
lic instruction,  and  a  considerable  number  of  able  young 
men  were  sent  to  Yverdon  to  study ;  they  returned  zealous 
advocates  of  the  introduction  of  Pestalozzian  methods 
into  the  schools.  One  of  the  greatest  influences  of  the 
spread  of  Pestalozzianism  in  Germany  came  from  the 
philosopher  Fichte,  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Pesta- 

240 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

lozzi,  who  made  many  addresses  on  his  work  as  a  means 
of  arousing  German  patriotism  and  enthusiasm  for  social 
reform.  As  a  result  of  all  these  influences  the  greatest 
interest  prevailed  among  the  teachers  of  Germany,  and 
remarkable  improvements  were  made  in  school  organiza- 
tion, equipment,  and  methods. 

In  France. — In  France  the  military  absolutism  of 
Napoleon  had  nothing  in  common  with  Pestalozzi's  pur- 
pose to  elevate  the  masses  thru  a  reformed  education, 
and  after  the  Restoration  in  1815  French  education  was 
placed  once  more  under  ecclesiastical  influences.  After 
the  Revolution  of  1830  some  progress  was  made,  espe- 
cially in  the  training  of  teachers,  as  the  result  of  the 
work  of  Victor  Cousin,  who  was  made  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction.  In  1835  he  issued  a  "  Report  on  the  State 
of  Public  Instruction  in  Prussia,"  which  described  the 
remarkable  progress  made  in  Prussia  as  the  result  of  the 
adoption  of  Pestalozzian  methods. 

In  England. — Pestalozzianism  in  England  has  had  by 
no  means  so  happy  a  history  as  in  Germany.  Its  intro- 
duction into  England  was  due  chiefly  to  the  work  of  the 
Reverend  Charles  Mayo  and  his  sister  Elizabeth.  Mayo 
spent  three  years  at  Yverdon,  and  upon  his  return  to 
England  in  1822  opened  a  private  school  for  children  of 
wealthy  people,  in  which  he  used  Pestalozzian  methods. 
Elizabeth  Mayo  described  the  methods  in  a  manual  for 
teachers  called  "  Lessons  on  Objects, "  which  was  a  kind 
of  encyclopedia  of  the  arts  and  sciences  arranged  in 
definite  lessons.  It  was  far  beyond  the  comprehension 
of  the  young  children  for  whom  it  was  intended.  But  it 
was  very  popular  and  had  the  effect  of  formalizing  Pesta- 
lozzianism in  England,  most  teachers  compelling  chil- 
dren to  memorize  facts  about  objects  instead  of  sensing 
them.  The  Mayos  helped  also  to  organize  the  Home  and 

241 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Colonial  Infant  School  Society  in  1836,  which  was  de- 
voted to  extending  the  system  of  infant  schools  that  had 
grown  up  in  England  after  the  Napoleonic  war.  The 
Society  established  a  model  infant  school  and  a  training 
college  for  teachers;  these  had  a  great  influence  in 
spreading  this  Anglicized  Pestalozzianism,  which  had 
little  of  the  true  spirit  of  the  great  reformer. 

In  the  United  States. — It  was  the  English  formalized 
Pestalozzianism  that  finally  affected  education  in  the 
United  States.  The  movement  was  first  brought  over 
by  one  of  Pestalozzi's  assistants,  who  had  been  invited 
by  a  Philadelphia  philanthropist  to  open  a  school  there. 
He  remained  but  a  few  years  and  had  comparatively 
little  influence.  The  second  way  in  which  the  movement 
secured  attention  in  the  United  States  was  by  the  pub- 
lication of  official  and  unofficial  reports  about  it.  The 
most  influential  of  these  were  the  translation  of 
" Cousin's  Report "  and  particularly  the  seventh  Anr 
nual  Report  of  Horace  Mann  in  1843.  This  was  the 
result  of  personal  observation  upon  his  part  and  caused  a 
great  sensation  by  its  implied  condemnation  of  American 
methods.  Henry  Barnard,  thru  his  publications  and 
his  activities  as  Commissioner  of  Education  of  Connecti- 
cut and  as  first  United  States  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, also  had  a  great  influence  in  stimulating  an  interest 
in  Pestalozzianism  in  the  United  States. 

As  a  result  of  these  influences  the  Prussian  form  of 
Pestalozzianism  was  introduced  into  a  number  of  elemen- 
tary schools  and  also  into  a  few  of  the  normal  schools 
in  New  England,  but  its  effect  was  comparatively  cir- 
cumscribed. The  deciding  influence  in  the  introduction 
of  Pestalozzianism  in  the  United  States  was  the  Oswego 
movement,  inaugurated  in  1860  by  Mr.  Edward  A.  Shel- 
don, who  was  then  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Oswego, 

242 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

N.  Y.  Mr.  Sheldon  became  acquainted  with  Pestalozzi 's 
ideas  as  the  result  of  observing-  a  collection  of  Pestaloz- 
zian  method  materials  at  Toronto,  Canada,  and  of  read- 
ing the  publications  of  the  Home  and  Colonial  Infant 
School  Society.  He  determined  to  introduce  Pestalozzian 
methods  into  his  schools  and  imported  from  England  the 
necessary  books  and  equipment.  Then  he  organized  a 
training  class  for  teachers  and  invited  over  a  training 
teacher  from  the  Mayo  school.  The  Oswego  movement 
determined  the  kind  of  Pestalozzianism  that  was  to  pre- 
vail in  American  schools,  because  it  was  inaugurated  at 
a  psychological  moment.  The  period  succeeding  1860 
was  characterized  by  the  establishment  of  normal  schools 
and  training  schools  thruout  the  north,  and  the  Oswego 
institution,  which  had  been  made  a  state  normal  school 
in  1866,  provided  most  of  the  experts  to  teach  methods. 
The  Oswego  system  emphasized  the  "object  lesson"  as  a 
chief  method  of  instruction,  but  was  severely  criticized 
by  some  educators  on  the  ground  of  formalism.  Never- 
theless it  received  the  approval  of  a  committee  of  the 
National  Education  Association  in  1865,  and  for  the 
next  generation  it  was  the  most  important  single  influ- 
ence in  the  development  of  our  schools.  However,  recent 
movements  in  methodology  and  educational  psychology 
have  been  away  from  the  Oswego  methods. 

B.     THE  HERBARTIAN  MOVEMENT 

Relation  of  Herbart  to  Pestalozzi. — The  career  and 
work  of  Herbart  are  in  most  particulars  the  antitheses 
of  those  of  Pestalozzi.  The  latter  was  a  visionary,  an 
enthusiastic  reformer  in  the  field  of  education  as  a  means 
of  social  betterment,  a  man  whose  educational  practices 
were  based  largely  upon  a  remarkable  intuitive  knowl- 

243 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

edge  of  child  nature.  The  former  led  a  wholly  academic 
career,  was  comparatively  uninterested  in  the  great  social 
changes  taking  place  about  him,  and  organized  a  sys- 
tem of  education  in  part  as  the  result  of  philosophic  re- 
flection. Both  were  actuated  by  the  desire  to  formulate 
principles  based  upon  their  own  observation  and  experi- 
ments, regardless  of  the  forces  of  tradition  and  author- 
ity. But  whereas  Pestalozzi  confined  his  work  to  the 
beginnings  of  mental  development,  to  the  training  in 
sense-perception  by  means  of  exercises  in  observation, 
Herbart,  accepting  Pestalozzi 's  contribution,  explained 
the  entire  development  of  the  mind  from  simple  ideas 
to  deliber  ate^act ions  "and  the  proper  place  of  instruction 
in  the  process  of  development.  The  two  men  supple- 
mented each  other.  Pestalozzi 's  perception  led  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  physical  world  and  resulted  in  an 
emphasis  upon  nature  study,  geography,  drawing,  and 
oral  composition.  Herbart 's  moral  training  aimed  at  a 
knowledge  of  the  moral  universe  and  resulted  in  an 
emphasis  upon  history  and  literature.  Herbart  freely 
admitted  his  indebtedness  to  Pestalozzi. 

Career  of  Johann  Friedrich  Herbart  (1776-1841). — 
Herbart  was  fortunate  in  his  parentage  and  training. 
His  father  was  a  learned  man  and  a  public  official.  His 
mother  was  a  woman  of  rare  intelligence,  who  personally 
supervised  the  early  education  of  her  son.  He  very 
early  showed  a  preference  for  Greek,  mathematics,  and 
metaphysics,  and  this  preference  had  a  marked  effect 
upon  his  pedagogical  views.  At  the  Gymnasium  of  his 
native  town,  Oldenburg,  and  especially  at  the  University 
of  Jena,  Herbart  was  deeply  influenced  by  the  spirit  and 
ideals  of  the  new  humanism  which  prevailed  there,  which 
exalted  the  Greek  culture  and  view  of  life  above  Latin. 
Before  taking  his  degree  he  became  private  tutor  to 

244 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

the  three  sons  of  the  Governor  of  Interlaken,  Switzer- 
land, and  his  observations  of  these  children  were  given 
system  and  order  thru  the  fact  that  he  had  to  make 
written  reports  from  time  to  time  to  their  father.  The 
influence  of  the  new  humanism  was  shown  in  his  prac- 
tice of  beginning  the  study  of  Greek  with  the  Odyssey 
as  his  chief  textbook,  because  he  considered  it  the  best 
starting  point  for  moral  education.  The  three  years' 
experience  which  he  had  with  these  children  provided 
him  with  the  ideas  and  materials  for  his  pedagogical 
theory,  and  he  always  afterwards  maintained  that  the 
careful  and  prolonged  observation  of  the  mental  develop- 
ment of  a  few  children  was  a  necessary  basis  for  a 
teacher's  training.  This  experience,  moreover,  led  him 
to  emphasize  the  necessijty_of  studying_the__needs_and 
powers  of  the_jnjjiyidual  child  and  making  education 
conform  to_them.  Herbart's  difficult  and  metaphysical 
psychology  was  developed  in  later  life  to  justify  his 
pedagogical  principles.  A  thoro  and  detailed  knowledge 
of  it  is  not  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  his  educa- 
tional system. 

While  in  Switzerland  Herbart  visited  Pestalozzi's 
school  at  Burgdorf  and  wrote  a  sympathetic  account  of 
his  observations ;  and  when  he  again  took  up  his  studies 
to  secure  his  degree,  he  warmly  advocated  in  lectures  to 
laymen  the  ideas  of  Pestalozzi.  From  1802  to  1808  he 
lectured  on  philosophy  and  pedagogy  at  the  University 
of  Gottingen,  and,  among  other  works,  he  published 
while  there  his  "Science  of  Education/'  In  1809  he 
received  the  high  honor  of  a  call  to  the  chair  of  phi- 
losophy at  Konigsberg,  which  but  four  years  before  had 
been  occupied  by  Immanuel  Kant.  He  remained  there 
until  1835,  when  the  reactionary  attitude  of  the  Prus- 
sian government  caused  his  withdrawal  to  the  more 

245 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

liberal  atmosphere  of  Gottingen.  "While  at  Konigsberg, 
however,  he  established  his  pedagogical  seminar  for  the 
advanced  students  in  educational  problems,  and  a  prac- 
tice school  to  provide  experience  for  these  students  and 
also  opportunities  for  experiments  in  methods  of  teach- 
ing. In  1835  he  published  his  most  important  work, 
"The  Outlines  of  Educational  Doctrine,"  which,  unlike 
the  "Science  of  Education,"  is  not  a  metaphysical 
treatise  but  a  clear  and  practical  exposition  of  his  peda- 
gogy. He  died  at  Gottingen  in  1841,  having,  as  stated 
above,  lived  a  purely  academic  life  in  an  atmosphere  of 
calm  reflection. 

Herbart's  Educational  System.  1.  The  Aim  of  Educa- 
tion.— The  moral  end  of  life,  character,  is  the  aim  of  ed- 
ucation. This  was  not  to  be  attained,  as  with  Rousseau, 
by  cultivating  the  native  capacities  of  the  child ;  nor,  as 
with  Pestalozzi,  by  developing  all  the  faculties  har- 
moniously. Herbart  in  fact  rejected  the  "faculty  psy- 
chology" of  the  mind  and  its  pedagogic  corollary,  the 
dogma  of  formal  discipline.  The  individual  is  destined 
to  live  with  his  fellow  men  in  society,  and  the  aim  of 
education  can  be  attained  only  by  analyzing  the  social 
interests  of  men  to  discover  which  are  best  for  the  edu- 
cated man,  and  then  by  means  of  instruction  to  enable 
the  individual  to  develop  and  apply  them.  It  is  evident 
what  an  emphasis  such  a  view  puts  upon  the  place  both 
of  knowledge  and  of  instruction  in  education.  The  first 
step  towards  the  realization  of  the  aim  of  education  is 
to  develop  in  the  individual  "many-sidedness"  of  in- 
terest. This  is  an  entirely  different  conception  of  in- 
terest from  that  taught  by  Professor  Dewey,  who  looks 
upon  interest  as  a  cause  of  knowledge  and  hence  a  means 
to  education.  Herbart  also  used  interest  in  this  sense, 
as  we  shall  see,  but  primarily  as  a  result  of  knowledge 

246 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

and  hence  an  end  of  education.  As  Professor  Parker 
says,  he  "  considered  interest  as  a  temporary  means  sub- 
ordinate to  the  larger  question  of  interests  as  permanent 
products  of  education. "  The  more  thoroly  the  teacher 
builds  up  by  means  of  instruction  a  number  of  fine  inter- 
ests in  the  individual  which  will  become  springs  to  ac- 
tion, the  more  successful  will  he  be  in  developing  moral 
character  without  sacrificing  individuality. 

2.  Content  of  Education. — Man's  interests  come  from 
his  experience  with  things  and  his  intercourse  with  peo- 
ple.   Hence  we  have  two  main  branches  of  instruction: 
the  scientific,  including  natural  science  and  mathematics ; 
and  the  social  or  historical,  including  the  chief  products 
of  man's  social  evolution,  viz.,  language,  literature,  and 
history.     Altho  both  these  branches  of  instruction  are 
important  to  enable  man  to  find  his  place  in  the  world, 
the  social  subjects,  or  "historical"  subjects,  as  Herbart 
calls  them,  offer  the  best  opportunity  to  color  the  facts 
with  "good  will."    They  are,  therefore,  especially  neces- 
sary to  an  understanding  of  human  relations  and  to  the 
attainment  of  the  moral  end  of  education.     As  stated 
above,  knowledge  comes  from  two  sources,  nature  and 
society.    .This  knowledge  leads  to  ideas  which  in  turn 
lead  to  action.     Character,  the  end  of  education,  thus 
has  its  beginning  in  knowledge  and  its  end  in  action. 
This  is   Herbart 's  "cycle   of  thought,"   and  the   im- 
portance is  readily  seen  of  instruction  which  will  de- 
termine the  character  of  the  child  according  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  ideas  presented  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  acquired. 

3.  Method  of  Instruction. — A.  Interest. — Not  all  in- 
struction is  educative.    To  be  educative  it  must  first  be 
characterized  by  the  fact  that  it  arouses  interest,  which 
is  the  kind  of  mental  activity  that  teaching  should  stimu- 

247 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

late.  Interest  is  the  pleasurable  tone  that  accompanies 
the  reception  of  an  idea  by  the  mind ;  it  is  measured  by 
the  energy  which  a  person  puts  forth  to  get  the  idea  or 
experience.  By  means  of  interest  attention  is  freely 
given  to  lessons,  and  need  not,  therefore,  be  secured  by 
extraneous  methods.  It  is  the  one  feeling  that  normally 
assists  rather  than  retards  the  action  of  reason,  hence 
its  invaluable  character  in  the  teaching  process. 


, 
HERBART'S  "CYCLE  OF  THOUGHT." 

B.  Apperception. — It  cannot  be  expected  that  a  child 
will  be  interested  in  what  is  so  remote  from  his  own  ex- 
perience as  to  be  "hard"  for  him  to  understand.  The 
old  education  assumed  that  children  had  the  necessary 
experience  with  which  to  relate  new  ideas.  Pestalozzi 
knew  better  and  provided  the  experiences.  Herbart 
showed  that  the  interpretation  of  new  experience  de- 
pends in  the  first  place  upon  a  sufficient  fund  of  past 
experience,  so  that  just  the  right  ideas  may  be  brought 
up  in  the  child 's  mind,  and  also  upon  arousing  the  right 
emotional  attitude,  the  right  frame  of  mind  for  the  re- 
ception of  the  new  experience.  This  is  the  meaning  of 

248 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

apperception,  the  interpretation  of  the  new  in  terms 
of  the  old. 

C.  General  Method. — Apperception  teaches  that  the 
mind  receives  and  assimilates  ideas  in  a  certain  way ; 
hence  any  subject,  no  matter  what  its  material,  can  be 
presented  according  to  a  general  method.  Herbart  out- 
lined four  steps  in  such  a  general  method  but  it  was 
afterward  modified  and  extended  by  his  disciples.  The 
Method-Whole  or  Five  Formal  Steps  of  the  Recitation 
with  their  meanings  today  are  as  follows :  ( 1 )  Prepara- 
tion. According  to  the  principle  of  apperception,  the 
child's  mind  should  be  prepared  for  the  new  material 
by  recalling  to  his  mind  the  ideas  he  already  has  which 
will  enable  him  readily  to  assimilate  the  new  and  which 
will  put  him  in  the  proper  frame  of  mind  to  do  so.  (2) 
Presentation,  the  actual  statement  and  the  explanation  of 
the  new  experience  to  be  appropriated.  (3)  Association, 
the  actual  combination  of  the  new  with  the  old.  (4) 
Generalization,  the  drawing  of  the  rule,  definition,  or 
general  principle  resulting  from  the  comparison  of 
particular  instances  that  took  place  in  the  third  step. 
(5)  Application,  the  testing  of  the  understanding  of  the 
general  principle  thru  the  solution  of  assigned  tasks  and 
problems.  The  first  four  steps  are  inductive,  the  fifth 
deductive.  Herbart  did  not  elaborate  his  general  method 
and  did  not  make  clear  whether  these  steps  were  to 
apply  to  each  lesson  unit  or  to  the  subject  as  a  whole. 
His  followers  usually  have  applied  it  to  the  individual 
recitation.  The  five  formal  steps  have  generally  been 
adopted  in  the  normal  schools  of  the  United  States  as 
forming  the  best  method  of  the  recitation.  To  the  ex- 
tent that  they  furnish  young  teachers  a  standard  by 
means  of  which  they  can  plan  out  a  lesson  in  advance, 
they  serve  a  useful  purpose.  The  danger  is  that  they 

249 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

may  become  a  pedagogical  strait- jacket  and  kill  the 
spontaneity  of  a  recitation. 

D.  Correlation. — Herbart  maintained  that  school  sub- 
jects should  be  so  organized  into  a  curriculum  that  they 
will  present  a  unified  world  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
child  and  thereby  strengthen  and  not  disperse  the  many- 
sidedness  of  interest.  Instruction  in  any  subject  fails 
pedagogically  when  the  ideas  generated  form  an  isolated 
group.  Herbart  himself  merely  suggested  the  idea  of 
correlation,  but  his  disciples  elaborated  it.  He  suggested 
that  the  Odyssey  be  the  first  book  read,  because  it  repre- 
sents the  activities  of  the  race  in  its  youth  and  hence 
would  appeal  to  the  individual  child.  He  believed  that 
the  Odyssey  should  be  followed  by  other  Greek  classics, 
combined  with  the  study  of  periods  of  history  selected 
to  describe  the  growth  of  complexity  in  human  interests. 
As  we  shall  see,  Ziller  developed  this  idea  into  the  cul- 
ture-epoch theory. 

Influence  of  Herbart. — So  great  has  been  the  influence 
of  Herbart  and  his  followers  upon  the  educational  prac- 
tice of  the  two  countries  which  have  made  the  greatest 
progress  in  education  in  the  later  nineteenth  century — 
namely,  Germany  and  the  United  States — that  it  will 
be  necessary  to  consider  in  some  detail  his  influence  in 
those  countries.  Wherever  his  educational  principles 
have  been  accepted,  there  has  followed  a  great  emphasis 
upon:  (1)  the  importance  of  school  instruction  in  de- 
veloping moral  character,  and  the  necessity  of  relying 
upon  human  nurture  rather  than  the  natural  capacities 
of  the  child  to  attain  that  end;  (2)  the  need  of  sound 
methods  of  teaching,  based  upon  a  knowledge  of  the  way 
in  which  the  mind  acts  and  expands;  (3)  the  exaltation 
of  the  teacher  in  the  educational  process,  and  the  need 
of  careful  training  for  the  teaching  vocation. 

250 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

The  Herbartian  Movement  in  Germany. — For  some 
years  Herbart's  principles  received  comparatively  little 
attention,  but  in  the  decade  beginning  in  1860  there  de- 
veloped two  remarkable  centers  of  Herbartian  influence, 
one  at  the  University  of  Leipzig  and  the  other  at  the 
University  of  Jena.  At  both  universities  pedagogical 
seminars  and  practice  schools  were  established,  where 
the  principles  of  Herbart  received  not  only  theoretical 
consideration  but  practical  application.  In  each  uni- 
versity a  great  leader  determined  the  direction  in  which 
the  movement  was  to  go. 

Tuiskon  Ziller  (1817-1883).— Professor  Ziller,  of  Leip- 
zig, was  the  first  to  arouse  general  interest  in  Herbart, 
thru  the  publication  jn  1865  of  his  book  entitled  ' '  Basis 
of  the  Doctrine  of  Instruction  as  a  Moral  Force."  The 
interest  aroused  by  this  publication  resulted  in  the 
founding  of  the  Association  for  the  Scientific  Study  of 
Education,  of  which  Ziller  was  the  first  president,  and 
which  soon  had  branches  everywhere  thruout  Germany. 
Ziller  was  quite  independent  in  his  attempt  to  realize 
Herbartian  principles,  and  was  far  more  radical  than 
his  master  in  their  development.  Herbart  had  in  mind 
the  secondary  school  when  he  predicated  the  superior 
value  of  the  historical  subjects  for  moral  training.  Ziller 
determined  to  make  the  Herbartian  pedagogy  the  basis 
of  the  work  of  the  German  elementary  school.  The  first 
evidence  of  this  was  his  development  of  Herbart's  prin- 
ciple of  correlation  into  one  of  concentration,  i.  e.,  the 
unification  of  all  school  instruction  upon  the  one  central 
core  study  which  will  have  the  greatest  practical  value* 
in  revealing  the  moral  universe  to  the  mind  of  the 
child.  Ziller  considered  history  and  literature  best  fitted 
to  provide  the  material  that  serves  to  accomplish  this 
end,  and  he  organized  for  the  eight  grades  of  the  ele- 

251 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

mentary  school  an  historical  course  having  that  object 
in  view. 

Tho  of  undeniable  importance,  the  culture-epoch  the- 
ory which  Ziller  elaborated  was  an  incidental  corollary 
to  his  principle  of  concentration.  It  is  a  pedagogical  ap- 
plication of  the  biological  theory  of  recapitulation,  i.  e., 
that  the  individual  in  his  physical  development  from  the 
embryo  to  the  adult  recapitulates  the  same  stages  of  de- 
velopment that  took  place  in  the  evolution  of  the  species. 
Hence,  to  conform  to  the  proper  order  in  the  psycho- 
logical development  of  the  child,  the  materials  for  in- 
struction should  be  selected  and  arranged  according  to 
stages  in  the  cultural  development  of  the  race.  Tho 
the  culture-epoch  theory  has  had  such  eminent  cham- 
pions as  Herbert  Spencer  in  England  and  G.  Stan- 
ley Hall  in  the  United  States,  it  is  really  of  only  academ- 
ic interest  and  has  seldom  been  made  the  basis  of  a 
course  of  study.  The  practical  difficulty  in  the  religious 
education  of  the  child  of  first  treating  him  as  a  little 
heathen  offering  up  animal  sacrifices,  and  then  as  a 
Jewish  child,  before  considering  him  a  Christian,  is  par- 
alleled by  similar  difficulties  in  every  other  subject.  This 
radical  and  exaggerated  development  of  Herbart's  prin- 
ciple of  correlation  is  only  one  instance  of  the  inde- 
pendent manner  in  which  Ziller  treated  the  doctrines  of 
his  master.  As  we  have  seen,  he  also  elaborated  Her- 
bart's general  method  into  the  five  formal  steps.  In 
fact,  he  gave  the  most  complete,  tho  exaggerated,  theo- 
retical exposition  of  Herbart's  principles. 

Wilhelm  Rein  (1847).— The  University  of  Jena 
at  first  brought  forth  a  very  moderate  restatement  of 
Herbart  's  principles ;  but  when  Professor  Wilhelm  Rein, 
a  pupil  of  Ziller,  became  head  of  the  pedagogical  seminar 
and  practice  school  there  in  1885,  he  developed  the  actual 

252 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

practice  according  to  the  principles  of  Ziller.  However, 
his  work  was  eminently  practical;  nowhere  else  was 
there  given  so  fine  a  combination  of  theoretical  exposi- 
tion and  practical  demonstration.  Rein  worked  out  the 
course  of  study  for  the  eight  years  of  the  elementary 
school  in  great  detail,  and  the  student-teachers  watched 
it  in  operation  in  the  practice  school  and  discussed  what 
they  saw  in  seminar.  Under  Rein  the  University  of 
Jena  became  the  great  center  of  Herbartianism,  from 
which  missionaries  carried  it  to  the  United  States.  In 
the  meantime  the  principles  of  Herbart  caused  modifica- 
tions in  the  content  and  methods  of  the  German  schools, 
which  have  brought  about  a  high  degree  of  excellence 
in  the  character  of  instruction. 

The  Herbartian  Movement  in  the  United  States. — The 
Herbartian  influence  reached  the  United  States  in  the 
early  nineties  of  the  last  century,  brought  hither  by 
men  who  had  studied  at  Jena  in  the  eighties.  The  most 
influential  of  these  men  were  Charles  De  Garmo,  who 
published  "The  Essentials  of  Method"  in  1889  and  later 
became  professor  of  education  at  Cornell;  Charles  A. 
McMurry,  who  published  his  "General  Method"  in  1892 
and  is  now  professor  of  education  in  the  George  Pea- 
body  College  for  Teachers  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and 
his  brother,  Frank  M.  McMurry,  who  with  Charles  pub- 
lished "The  Method  of  the  Recitation"  in  1897  and  is 
now  professor  of  elementary  education  in  Teachers  Col- 
lege, Columbia  University.  These  men  and  others  estab- 
lished the  National  Herbart  Society  in  1892,  which  at 
first  confined  itself  to  a  consideration  of  strictly  Her- 
bartian topics,  such  as  interest,  correlation,  appercep- 
tion, the  method  of  the  recitation,  and  moral  education. 
In  1902,  however,  the  name  of  the  society  was  changed 
to  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education ;  and 

253 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION      , 

it  no  longer  stands  for  any  particular  creed,  but  seeks 
in  aim,  spirit,  and  method  to  be  scientific.  By  that  time, 
however,  Herbartianism  had  won  most  of  the  normal 
schools  to  its  principles  and  thru  the  teachers  which 
they  sent  out  had  greatly  influenced  the  work  of  the  ele- 
mentary schools. 

Influence  on  the  Curriculum. — That  influence  was  first 
felt  in  the  curriculum.  The  Herbartian  emphasis  upon 
history  and  literature  as  the  best  material  for  instruction 
fhat  should  result  in"  the  development  of  moral  char- 
acter effected  a  marked  change  of  attitude  towards  the 
teaching  of  those  subjects.  Beforexthe  Civil  War,  his- 
tory received  little  attention  in  the  public  schools.  After 
the  War  American  history  only  was  taught  in  the  upper 
grades  and  practically  with  the  sole  aim  of  developing 
patriotism.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
largely  due  to  the  Herbartian  influence,  a  much  broader 
view  of  the  teaching  of  history  became  prevalent. 
Ancient,  European,  and  especially  English  history  re- 
ceived attention,  an  understanding  of  the  social  life 
rather  than  the  development  of  patriotism  became  the 
aim,  and  the  subject  was  taught  in  the  lower  grades  by 
means  of  biographical  and  historical  stories.  A  similar 
change  has  taken  place  in  the  teaching  of  literature.  Be- 
fore the  Civil  War  the  reading  books  of  the  children 
had  in  view  religious  and  moral  influences  and  the 
training  in  oratory.  After  the  war,  tho  secular  ma- 
terial received  a  larger  place,  it  consisted  usually  of 
brief  Extracts  from  the  great  writers,  and  the  aim  of 
the  reading  lesson  was  usually  to  train  in  oral  expres- 
sion. Silent  reading  and  the  training  in  habits  of  wide 
general  reading  received  little  attention.  Since  1890, 
however,  the  tendency  is  to  give  attention  to  the  literary 
quality  of  the  reading  matter  by  the  study  of  whole 

254 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

poems  and  stories,  and  thereby  to  give  a  wide  acquain- 
tance with  general  literature. 

Influence  an  Method. — Herbart's  principle  of  correla- 
tion has  also  deeply  influenced  the  organization  of  the 
curriculum  in  the  United  States.  In  1895  the  report 
of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  of  the  National  Education 
Association,  on  elementary  education,  started  a  number 
of  movements  looking  to  the  discovery  of  some  basis  of 
unity  in  the  curriculum  resulting  from  a  proper  correla- 
tion of  studies.  The  report  of  the  Association 's  Commit- 
tee of  Ten  similarly  aimed  to  secure  unification  for  sec- 
ondary education.  Generally  in  the  United  States  corre- 
lation has  taken  a  moderate  form  such  as  interrelating 
the  work  of  geography,  history,  and  civics,  or  of  geog- 
raphy and  science,  or  of  arithmetic  and  constructive 
work.  But  in  1894  Colonel  Parker,  the  principal  of  the 
Cook  County  (Illinois)  Normal  School,  adopted  Ziller^s 
principle  of  concentration,  making  the  sciences,  especial- 
ly geography,  the  central  subjects  of  study.  The  contro- 
versy that  took  place  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  between  the  advocates  of  interest  and  of 
effort  in  education,  and  the  gradual  adoption  of  the 
method  whole  by  the  normal  schools,  are  but  a  few 
other  instances  of  the  influence  the  Herbartian  movement 
has  had  upon  American  education.  In  fact,  tho  no  one 
calls  himself  an  Herbartian  today,  it  would  be  hard  to 
overestimate  the  effect  of  the  movement  upon  our  schools. 

C.     THE  FROEBELIAN  MOVEMENT 

Friedrich  Wilhelm  August  Froebel  (1782-1852).— -This 
most  eminent  disciple  of  Pestalozzi  to  whom  he  owed 
the  inspiration  for  his  practical  work  differed  from 
his  master  in  not  deriving  his  educational  theories  from 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

experience,  but  from  a  mystical  philosophy  which  he 
formulated  early  in  life.  But  just  as  we  have  seen  that 
what  is  most  valuable  in  Herbart's  educational  system 
is  in  no  need  of  the  support  of  his  metaphysical  psy- 
chology, so  what  has  proved  to  be  of  permanent  value 
in  Froebel's  system  does  not  depend  for  its  soundness 
upon  his  mystical  philosophy.  Moreover,  his  pedagogical 
principles  can  be  understood  with  but  slight  reference 
to  it. 

The  Life  of  Froebel. — FroebeFs  early  career  was  not 
a  happy  one.  His  mother  died  in  his  infancy  and 
his  father,  the  overworked  pastor  of  a  large  parish, 
had  little  sympathy  with  the  lonely,  dreamy  boy  and 
left  him  to  the  control  of  a  harsh  stepmother.  The 
remembrance  of  his  early  childhood  caused  Froebel  ever 
afterward  to  emphasize  love  and  sympathy  as  the  only 
relation  that  should  exist  between  teacher  and  child.  At 
ten  he  was  allowed  to  live  with  an  uncle,  who  treated 
him  most  kindly  and  helped  him  in  his  formal  school 
work  in  which  he  showed  neither  great  interest  nor 
great  ability.  At  fifteen  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  fores- 
ter, and  from  that  time  until  eight  years  later,  when  he 
finally  decided  to  make  teaching  his  vocation,  he  was 
engaged  in  a  variety  of  occupations  that  brought  him 
into  contact  with  and  developed  his  great  love  of  nature. 
During  these  eight  years  he  had  but  little  additional 
systematic  education,  tho  he  spent  some  months  at  Jena 
with  his  brother,  who  was  a  student  of  medicine.  While 
there  he  came  under  the  influence  of  the  philosophy  of 
Fichte  and  Schelling,  which  deepened  the  mysticism 
that  was  part  of  his  temperament,  and  he  was  also  much 
impressed  by  the  favorable  attitude  towards  evolution 
adopted  in  scientific  circles  there.  Finally  he  decided 
to  become  an  architect  and  went  to  Frankfort  to  study 

256 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

for  that  vocation,  but  was  persuaded  by  the  director  of 
a  Pestalozzian  school  there  to  become  a  teacher  in  his 
school  (1805).  Three  years  later  he  went  with  three 
pupils  to  Yverdon,  where  he  spent  two  years  in  studying 
Pestalozzi's  method,  and  became  an  enthusiastic  Pesta- 
lozzian. The  next  six  years  he  devoted  to  pursuing 
his  university  studies,  serving  in  the  Prussian  army 
against  Napoleon,  and  acting  as  an  assistant  curator  in 
a  mineralogical  museum  at  Berlin.  In  the  meantime  he 
had  carefully  studied  the  works  of  Rousseau,  Basedow, 
and  Pestalozzi. 

In  1816,  at  the  age  of  thirty-four,  he  opened  a  school 
at  Griesheim,  which  he  moved  the  next  year  to  Keil- 
hau.  The  school  at  first  had  as  pupils  only  his  five 
nephews.  It  was  conducted  upon  Pestalozzian  lines,  but 
even  then  the  germ  of  the  kindergarten  idea  was  present, 
for  much  of  the  training  was  obtained  thru  play.  In 
1825  a  hostile  government  inspector  was  constrained  to 
praise  the  school  for  its  success  in  the  application  of 
the  principle  of  self-activity  in  children,  but  despite  its 
pedagogic  success  financial  difficulties  compelled  Froebel 
to  leave  it  and  to  accept  in  succession  a  number  of  teach- 
ing positions  in  Switzerland.  In  the  meantime,  how- 
ever, he  had  published  his  "Education  of  Man"  (1826), 
his  most  important  pedagogical  work,  which,  tho  char- 
acterized by  much  mysticism  and  symbolism,  contains 
the  best  exposition  of  his  ideas.  A  friend  had  drawn 
to  his  attention  the  writings  of  Comenius,  and  the  lat- 
ter's  description  of  a  school  of  the  mother's  knee  con- 
firmed Froebel  in  the  belief  that  had  slowly  formed  in 
his  mind  that  the  reform  most  needed  in  education  was 
that  of  the  earliest  years  of  childhood.  Educational 
theorists  had  for  ages  preached  the  importance  of  car- 
ing for  the  earliest  impressions  made  on  the  plastic  mind 

257 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  the  child,  but  no  one  had  attempted  to  organize  early 
education  with  that  object  in  view.  Froebel  had  already 
worked  out  many  games,  plays,  songs,  and  occupations 
when  he  opened  a  ''school  for  little  children'*  at  Blan- 
kenburg  in  1837,  but  it  was  not  until  1840  that  he  hit 
upon  the  name  Kindergarten  for  it.  The  remaining 
years  of  his  life  were  devoted  to  expounding  his  ideas 
in  pamphlets,  to  expanding  and  improving  the  materials 
of  the  kindergarten,  and  to  training  girls  to  become 
kindergarten  teachers.  Unfortunately  the  reactionary 
Prussian  government,  confusing  Froebel's  teachings 
with  those  of  a  revolutionary  nephew  of  the  same  name, 
prohibited  in  1851  the  establishment  of  kindergartens  in 
Prussia,  a  prohibition  which  remained  in  force  until 
1860.  Froebel's  strength  could  not  survive  this  blow 
and  he  died  the  following  year,  1852. 

The  Aim  of  Education:  Development.  —  Froebel  agrees 
thoroly  with  Rousseau  in  his  statement  of  the  aim  of 
education,  viz.,  development,  development  of  the  inborn 
capacities  and  powers  of  the  child.  But  he  is  wholly 
opposed  to  Rousseau  in  his  explanation  of  this  aim.  As 
stated  before,  Froebel  was  not  only  an  intensely  re- 
ligious man,  but  a  mystic,  and  he  constantly  resorts  to 
symbolism  and  far-fetched  analogies  wholly  alien  to 
the  pure  naturalism  of  Rousseau.  Stripped  of  its  mys- 
ticism, his  explanation  was  to  the  effect  that  there  is  one 
underlying  power  in  the  universe,  God,  which  manifests 
itself  as  force  in  nature  and  consciousness  in  man.  Na- 
ture and  man,  therefore,  are  one,  and  a  study  of  the 
changes  in  the  evolution  of  nature  will  throw  light  upon 
similar  changes  in  the  development  of  man.  Hence  the 
hidden  meanings  which  Froebel  found  in  natural  ob- 
jects, which  he  believed  were  'of  great  value  in  reveal- 
ing the  world  to  the  child.  Humanity  as  a  whole  is  re- 


-I* 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

vealed  in  each  child,  but  in  a  particular,  unique  way; 
hence  education  must  provide  for  the  development  of 
the  free  personality  of  every  child,  it  must  guide  hut 
not  restrict,  it  must  not  interfere  with  the  divinity  in 
each  child. 

Self -Activity  or  Motor  Expression:  The  Method  of  De- 
velopment.— Froebel  was  in  accord  with  Rousseau  in 
considering  the  child  a  behaving,  not  a  learning,  animal. 
The  child's  chief  characteristic  is  self-activity,  activity 
determined  by  his  own  interests  and  desires.  Hence 
education  should  build  upon  this  primary  instinct;  the 
child  should  learn,  but  learn  by  doing.  Froebel  made 
a  great  step  in  advance  over  Pestalozzi,  for  the  latter 's 
sense-perception  instruction  was  chiefly  a  matter  of 
passive  observation.  Froebel,  on  the  contrary,  was  strong 
in  his  emphasis  upon  motor-expression,  education  by 
doing,  as  having  the  greatest  developing  power,  and 
therefore  made  it  the  essential  instead  of  the  incidental 
factor  in  school  work.  The  Herbartians,  too,  made  a 
place  for  doing  in  the  fifth  step  of  the  recitation,  i.  e., 
application,  but  with  Froebel  motor-expression  was  not 
one  step  but  all  steps  in  the  educative  process.  The 
education  of  his  day  he  considered  defective,  because 
it  developed  the  powers  of  thinking  faster  than  the 
power  of  realizing  thought  in  action.  Motor-expression 
developed  the  powers  of  acquisition  and  accomplishment 
together,  hence  there  was  no  break  between  thought  and 
action. 

Social  Participation:  The  Means  of  Development. — If 
Froebel  followed  Rousseau  in  the  aim  and  method  of 
education,  he  did  not  in  the  means.  Froebel  believed  as 
thoroly  as  Aristotle  that  man  is  a  social  animal  and  can 
realize  his  humanity  only  in  cooperation  with  his  fellow 
men.  Moreover,  he  maintained  that  the  child  has  a 

259 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

mechanism  of  instincts  which  impels  him  to  cooperative 
action,  as  can  easily  be  seen  by  watching  his  games. 
Hence  from  infancy  social  cooperation  should  be  culti- 
vated for  the  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  benefits 
that  accrue  from  it.  The  schoolroom  is  society  in  minia- 
ture. 

The  Kindergarten. — The  three  great  principles  of  edu- 
cation of  Froebel,  viz.,  development  as  the  aim,  motor- 
expression  as  the  method,  and  social  cooperation  as  the 
means,  found  embodiment  in  the  kindergarten.  The  kin- 
dergarten was  not  the  first  educational  institution  or- 
ganized for  children  below  the  ordinary  school  age,  the 
infant  school  in  England  preceding  it  by  a  few  years. 
But  the  infant  school  did  not  compare  with  the  kinder- 
garten in  importance,  being  a  mere  expedient  to  meet 
wretched  industrial  conditions  1  and  having  no  scientific 
educational  foundation.  The  kindergarten,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  organized  to  conform  to  the  child's  instincts, 
impulses,  and  feelings.  As  the  primary  form  in  which 
his  self-activity  manifests  itself  is  play,  the  kindergarten 
is  based  upon  the  play  instinct — is,  in  fact,  play  or- 
ganized to  educational  ends.  The  kindergarten  aims 
primarily  to  secure  development  in  the  child  by  help- 
ing him  to  express  himself.  Incidentally  he  acquires 
knowledge,  but  the  gaining  of  knowledge  is  not  the 
aim. 

The  forms  of  expression  which  Froebel  used  most  in 
the  kindergarten  were  (1)  gesture,  (2)  song,  and  (3) 
construction,  with  language  as  a  concomitant  of  all 
three.  Moreover,  whenever  possible  these  forms  of  ex- 
pression were  to  be  coordinated,  e.  g.,  when  the  teacher 
had  told  a  story  it  was  to  be  retold  by  the  child  not  only 
orally  in  speech,  but  dramatically  in  gesture,  musically 
^ee  p.  294. 

260 


,,2Ba3immer  mit  bent  fltnbe 
•  2)u  aucb,  tretbe|l 
,  ba§  in  geben«ctn= 

serbletbeil, 
Xreib'  mit  bem  tf  tnbe  ntcbtd 


,. 
<Sonfl»irb  c«  babur^  letc^t 


2Btc  biefed  ctgentli*  ifl  ju 

»erfleb,en, 

Du  je§t  glei*  am 

<5piel  bfr  Slrme  feb,en, 
2Benn  fte  fpielen:  ©ra$  gu 

m<Sb,en." 


SHOWING  THE  CHILD  SOME  OF  THE  HUMAN  ACTIVITIES  NECESSAET 
FOB  LIFE 

From  Blow's  "Mottoes  and  Commentaries  of  Froebel's  Mother 
Play" 

261 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  song,  constructively  in  paper,  clay,  blocks.  The  ma- 
terials for  use  in  the  work  of  the  kindergarten  consisted 
of  (1)  the  "Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Songs,"  (2)  the 
gifts,  (3)  the  occupations.  The  "Mother  Play  and 
Nursery  Songs"  was  a  small  book  of  fifty  songs,  each  ac- 
companied by  a  picture  and  explanatory  notes.  The 
songs  describe  simple  nursery  games  like  hide-and-seek, 
or  the  imitations  of  some  trade  like  the  carpenter's.  It 
can  readily  be  seen  what  an  opportunity  they  offer  for  in- 
structional purposes  along  kindergarten  lines.  In  fact, 
the  "Mother  Play''  has  been  one  of  the  chief  instruments 
in  the  training  of  kindergartners.  The  ' '  gifts ' '  and  '  *  oc- 
cupations" consist  of  materials  for  stimulating  the 
child's  motor-expression,  the  gifts  consisting  of  materi- 
als that  do  not  change  their  form  in  use,  like  the  sphere, 
cube,  cylinder,  sticks,  and  tablets,  and  the  occupations 
consisting  of  materials  that  are  reshaped  and  trans- 
formed in  use,  like  sand,  clay,  paper,  and  cardboard.  The 
more  recent  organization  of  the  kindergarten  has  trans- 
ferred the  emphasis  from  the  gifts  to  the  occupations,  as 
tending  to  develop  greater  freedom  of  expression.  The 
work  of  the  kindergarten  was  and  is  carried  on  as  if  it 
were  a  miniature  society  in  which  the  little  citizens  are 
learning  their  duties  and  privileges  and  the  need  of  mu- 
tual helpfulness. 

Influence  of  Froebel. — Tho  the  influences  exerted  by 
Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and  Froebel  are  so  inextricably 
interwoven  in  the  educational  practice  of  today  that  it 
is  extremely  difficult  to  trace  any  one  of  them,  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  the  most  important  streams  of 
thought  in  present  elementary  education  flow  from 
Froebel.  The  symbolic  values  attached  to  the  gifts  and 
occupations  have  been  replaced  in  the  kindergarten 
practice  of  today  by  an  emphasis  upon  reality,  due  to  a 

262 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

better  selection  of  materials  and  activities.  And  tho  the 
kindergarten  is  the  chief  bequest  of  Froebel,  his  sys- 
tem is  just  as  applicable  to  higher  stages  of  education, 
and  his  influence  upon  a  number  of  other  practices  has 
been  so  profound  a$  to  require  some  attention. 

Play. — Emphasis  now  is  upon  the  human  animal  as 
primarily  an  acting,  not  a  learning,  animal.  This  is  due 
to  the  new  psychology  which  predicates  feeling  and  ac- 
tion as  primary  elements  of  mind,  and  intellect  as  a 
product  of  their  interaction.  Hence  the  soundness  of 
Froebel's  insistence  upon  the  educational  value  of  play, 
not  for  physical  welfare,  the  ground  upon  which  it  was 
usually  defended,  but  for  intellectual  and  moral  train- 
ing, for  which  Froebel  considered  it  of  supreme  value. 
Froebel  realized  his  ideas  of  the  value  of  play  only  in 
the  kindergarten,  but  the  school  has  learned  that  in  play 
the  individual  reveals  himself  and  finds  the  social  world 
revealed  to  him  far  better  than  in  any  other  activity. 
Hence  play  in  its  variety  of  forms  has  its  place  today 
in  all  branches  of  education,  elementary,  secondary,  and 
higher. 

Manual  Training. — That  Froebel  emphasized  construc- 
tive work  as  a  means  of  expression  and  development,  not 
only  for  the  early  but  for  the  later  years  of  the  child's 
life,  is  made  evident  by  his  scheme  for  a  manual  train- 
ing school  which  he  proposed  to  establish  at  Helba,  Ger- 
many. And  tho  other  men  were  advocating  the  same 
kind  of  education  at  the  same  time  wholly  independently 
of  Froebel,  three  aspects  of  Froebel's  scheme  should  be 
remembered:  (1)  His  plan  included  the  elements  of 
practically  all  manual  training  schemes  that  have  since 
been  developed.  (2)  The  success  .of  the  kindergarten 
tended  to  emphasize  the  value  of  manual  training  for 
older  children.  (3)  Froebel  was  the  first  to  advocate 

263 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

manual  work  on  the  educational  grounds  which  are  used 
to  justify  it  today.  Rousseau  believed  in  handwork  and 
wanted  everybody  to  learn  a  trade,  but  for  social  and 
economic  reasons.  Pestalozzi's  manual  work  was  pri- 
marily to  train  in  sense-perception  in  order  to  enable  the 
child  better  to  acquire  knowledge.  Froebel  emphasized 
it  as  a  form  of  expression  of  ideas,  as  a  way  of  develop- 
ing creative  power.  Hence  the  manual  training  which 
he  advocated  must  be  distinguished  from  industrial  edu- 
cation, which  has  competed  with  it  for  a  place  in  the 
school.  The  one  makes  use  of  constructive  activities  for 
general  educative  purposes  and  is  provided  for  the  child, 
whatever  his  future  vocation,  just  the  same  as  geography 
or  arithmetic.  The  other  looks  to  industrial  efficiency 
in  some  particular  branch  of  trade,  and  has  a  specific 
educational  purpose. 

Spread  of  Froebelianism  in  Europe. — Prohibited  in 
Prussia,  the  kindergarten  was  brought  to  foreign  coun- 
tries by  the  devoted  disciples  of  Froebel,  especially  by 
the  Baroness  von  Billow.  Her  social  position  and  her 
enthusiasm  secured  considerable  success  in  the  establish- 
ment of  kindergartens  thruout  western  Europe.  In 
England  and  in  France  the  kindergarten  was  grafted 
on  the  infant  school  and  gave  the  latter  Froebel 's 
methods  rather  than  his  fundamental  idea.  In  Ger- 
many, largely  thru  the  Baroness  von  Billow's  efforts, 
there  was  established  in  1867  a  Froebel  Union,  which  had 
a  great  influence  in  spreading  Froebel's  influence  by 
means  of  journals  and  training  schools.  Nevertheless, 
the  kindergarten  in  Germany  has  never  been  recognized 
as  a  part  of  the  regular  school  system  and  is  usually 
upon  a  voluntary  basis. 

The  manual  training  movement  began  in  Finland,  one 
of  whose  prominent  educators  determined  to  carry  the 

264 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

active  occupations  of  the  kindergarten  up  into  the  ele- 
mentary grades  and  impart  manual  dexterity  to  the 
pupils.  The  Finnish  system  influenced  in  turn  the  Swed- 
ish sloyd  system,  which  had  developed  independently  of 
it.  Swedish  sloyd  had  started  as  an  economic  measure 
to  revive  domestic  industries,  and  the  aim  was  to  teach 
the  elementary  trades.  But  after  the  Finnish  influence 
was  felt,  the  Swedish  sloyd  adopted  the  general  educa- 
tive aim,  i.  e.,  to  develop  manual  dexterity  and  the  abil- 
ity to  use  tools. 

Froebelianism  in  the  United  States. — A.  The  Kinder- 
garten.— To  consider  in  detail  the  influence  of  Froe- 
belianism on  education  in  the  United  States  would  mean 
to  study  practically  every  important  educational  ten- 
dency of  the  present  time.  We  have  space  only  for  the 
few  that  have  wielded  the  greatest  influence,  and  the 
first  of  these  is,  of  course,  the  kindergarten.  Some  of 
the  cultured  Germans  who  had  emigrated  to  the  United 
States  after  the  revolution  of  1848  opened  private  schools 
for  the  education  of  their  children,  and  these  usually  had 
kindergartens  attached  to  them.  Miss  Elizabeth  Pea- 
body  of  Boston  was  influenced  by  these  and  opened  the 
first  kindergarten  in  the  United  States  for  English- 
speaking  children  in  1860,  and  was  also  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  founding  the  first  training  school  for  kinder- 
gartners  in  1868.  The  movement  spread  with  great 
rapidity,  and  in  the  seventies  and  eighties  many  organi- 
zations were  established  thruout  the  country,  having  for 
their  aim  the  maintenance  of  kindergartens.  These  were 
all  private,  however,  and  the  kindergarten  movement 
could  not  have  its  proper  educational  influence  until 
it  was  introduced  into  the  public  school  system.  This 
took  place  in  1873,  when  Dr.  William  T.  Harris  (to 
whom  American  education  owes  the  introduction  of  so 

265 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

many  good  influences),  as  superintendent  of  education  of 
St.  Louis,  made  the  kindergarten  a  part  of  the  public 
school  system  of  that  city.  Since  then  it  has  become 
part  of  the  public  school  system  of  most  cities  of  the 
country.  In  his  efforts  to  secure  the  general  adoption 
of  the  kindergarten,  Dr.  Harris  was  ably  assisted  by  Miss 
Susan  Blow,  one  of  the  most  influential  advocates  of  the 
kindergarten  movement.  Miss  Blow  not  only  wrote  and 
spoke  extensively  in  its  favor,  but  established  a  train- 
ing school  at  St.  Louis,  where  Dr.  Harris  had  incor- 
porated the  kindergarten  in  the  school  system,  and  from 
this  training  school  missionaries  went  out  in  every  di- 
rection. Miss  Blow  became  the  leader  of  the  conserva- 
tive school,  which  emphasized  the  symbolism  of  the  kin- 
dergarten materials,  a  position  which  is  gradually  giv- 
ing way  to  a  more  liberal  interpretation  of  Froebel's 
principles.  Today  the  number  of  journals,  magazines, 
and  associations  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  kinder- 
garten is  excelled  in  influence  only  by  the  fine  training 
schools  maintained  thruout  the  country. 

B.  The  Manual  Training  Movement. — The  manual 
training  movement  in  the  United  States  was  one  of 
the  results  of  the  Centennial  Exposition  of  1876  at  Phila- 
delphia. The  Russian  exhibit  at  the  Exposition 
prompted  educators  in  our  country  to  advocate  drawing, 
design  work,  and  constructive  work  as  part  of  our  educa- 
tional curriculum.  At  first  manual  training  was  intro- 
duced only  in  the  high  schools,  and  the  movement  spread 
with  such  rapidity  after  1880,  when  the  first  manual 
training  school  was  established  in  St.  Louis,  that  today 
almost  all  cities  have  either  manual  training  high  schools 
or  have  adopted  manual  training  as  part  of  the  general 
high  school  curriculum.  In  elementary  education  man- 
ual training  was  first  tried  out  in  privately  maintained 

266 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

schools,  but  its  success  was  so  evident  that  it  was  rapidly 
adopted  into  the  public  schools.  Since  1882,  when 
Montclair,  N.  J.,  first  introduced  it  into  both  the  primary 
and  grammar  grades  of  the  elementary  school,  it  has 
been  adopted  in  some  form  by  practically  all  city  school 
systems. 

C.  Elementary  School  Practice. — In  reconstructing 
theory  and  practice  in  elementary  education  in  the 
United  States,  no  other  influence  has  been  so  effective 
during  the  past  generation  as  the  Froebelian  emphasis 
upon  education  thru  motor-expression  and  social  par- 
ticipation. And  this  has  been  due  to  the  efforts  of 
Colonel  Francis  W.  Parker  (1837-1902),  more  than  to 
any  other  single  individual.  As  principal  of  the  Cook 
County  Normal  School  he  introduced  the  Pestalozzian 
methods  of  teaching  geography  and  the  Herbartian 
scheme  of  concentrating  the  curriculum  about  a  central 
study,  in  this  case  geography.  But  tho  advocating,  in 
season  and  out,  all  that  was  best  in  the  Pestalozzian  and 
Herbartian  movements,  he  was  the  chief  exponent  of  the 
belief  that  the  adoption  of  Froebel's  principles  would 
revolutionize  elementary  education.  His  insistence  upon 
training  in  all  forms  of  expression  as  the  best  way  to 
develop  the  thinking  process  and  also  to  realize  the  high- 
est possibilities  of  character  has  been  adopted  in  theory 
by  nearly  all  leaders  in  modern  educational  thought  in 
the  United  States,  tho  but  sadly  realized  in  actual  prac- 
tice. Another  educator  who  has  emphasized  motor- 
expression  and  the  social  aspect  of  education  is  Professor 
John  Dewey,  but  as  he  worked  out  his  ideas  independ- 
ently of  Froebelian  influence  and  is  most  influential  at 
the  present  moment  in  the  reconstruction  of  educational 
thought,  we  shall  consider  his  work  briefly  in  a  later 
chapter. 

267 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Methodizers  and  the  Problem  of  Government  and 
Liberty. — It  is  evident  even  to  the  casual  reader  how  far 
Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and  Froebel  departed  from  Rous- 
seau, who  inspired  their  work,  in  their  solution  of  the 
problem  of  reconciling  individual  liberty  with  social 
stability.  Every  one  of  them  emphasized  individuality 
and  the  importance  of  making  instruction  conform  to 
the  individual  needs  and  aptitudes  of  the  child.  Only 
in  that  way  can  the  inner  freedom  upon  which  they  all 
laid  stress  find  expression  in  character,  which  they  all 
made  the  end  of  education.  This  end  can  be  attained, 
however,  only  in  life  with  one 's  fellows ;  hence  the  need 
of  studying  society  to  discover  the  really  important  as- 
pects of  life,  then  of  organizing  the  subject  matter  of 
instruction  so  as  to  make  it  an  epitome  of  life,  and 
finally  of  administering  the  school  so  as  to  make  it  a 
society  in  microcosm.  Tho  the  methodizers  were  pri- 
marily interested  in  the  psychological  aspect  of  educa- 
tion, in  the  development  of  the  individual,  the  social 
aspect  is  everywhere  evident  in  the  emphasis  upon  educa- 
tion both  as  the  means  and  the  process  of  moral  and 
social  progress.  And  the  importance  of  the  social  insti- 
tutions of  the  home,  the  school,  and  the  state  in  this 
work  is  everywhere  made  evident.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  these  reformers  paved  the  way  for  the  defini- 
tion of  education  given  by  Rosenkranz,  "Education  is 
the  preparation  for  life  in  institutions." 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Pestalozzi,  Froebel, 
Herbart,  Fellenberg,  Ziller,  Parker,  etc. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  XXXVI. 

DE  GARMO,  C.    Herbart  and  the  Herbartians. 

268 


PSYCHOLOGIZING  EDUCATION 

FROEBEL,  F.  W.    Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  Ill,  Chaps. 
V-VIL 

HOLMAN,  H.     Pestalozzi,  His  Life  and  Work. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
XI. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  A  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Educa- 
tion. Chaps.  XIII-XVIII. 

PESTALOZZI,  H.     Leonard  and  Gertrude. 

QUICK,  R.  H.    Educational  Reformers.    Chaps.  XVI-XVII. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Show  the  points  of  resemblance  and  difference  between 
the  principles  of  Comenius  and  Pestalozzi,  Locke  and  Herbart, 
Basedow   and   Froebel. 

2.  To  what   extent  is   "character  formation"  the  end   of 
school  instruction? 

3.  Which  method  of  moral  development  among  the  follow- 
ing do  you  favor  in  the  school :    a.  Direct  teaching  of  morals 
in  lessons?     b.  The  teaching  of  morals  as  incidental  to  the 
teaching  of  other  subjects?    c.  Moral  development  as  a  result 
of  classroom  organization  and  discipline  and  of  school  admin- 
istration?   d.  Development  upon  the  examples  of  teachers? 

4.  To  what  extent  can  interest  be  made  the  basis  of  school 
work?    Is  it  necessary  to  have  "hard"  subjects,  problems,  and 
situations  to  train  will  power? 

5.  How  far  can  the  development  of  individuality  be  made 
a  part  of  the  aim  of  school  instruction? 

6.  In   view  of   the   organization   of  the  high   school  into 
departments  and  of  departmental  teaching  in  the  upper  grades 
of  the   elementary  school,  to  what  extent  can  the  principle 
of  correlation  of  subjects  be  carried  out? 

7.  To  what  extent  can  the  subject  matter  of  instruction  be 
drawn  directly  from  the  life  activities  of  the  child? 

8.  a.  Has  the  play  element  been  sufficiently  introduced  into 

269 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

American  school  activities?  b.  Illustrate  how  any  elementary 
school  subject  might  profitably  be  taught  as  a  game.  c.  Give 
instances  where  primary  school  methods  have  been  unwisely 
used  in  more  advanced  instruction. 

9.  Illustrate,  if  possible,  how  constructive  work  might  be 
used  in  teaching  the  more  formal  subjects  of  the  elementary 
schools,  like  arithmetic  and  grammar. 

10.  Show  how  objective  teaching  may  properly   be  em- 
ployed in  arithmetic. 

11.  Respecting  the   dictum,   "Things   before  words,"   give 
an   application   advocated   by:    a.    Comenius;    b.    Rousseau  j 
c.  Pestalozzi. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    QUESTION    OF    EDUCATIONAL    VALUES— SCIENCE 
IN  THE  CURRICULUM— HERBERT  SPENCER 

Outline. — The  nineteenth  century  witnessed  a  remarkable 
progress  in  pure  science  and  a  still  more  astonishing  develop- 
ment of  applied  science.  These  resulted  in  a  revolution  in 
conditions  of  living  and  also  of  thinking. 

A  demand,  therefore,  arose  for  the  inclusion  of  the  sciences 
in  the  curricula  of  the  schools,  primarily  because  of  the  value 
of  their  content  but  also  because  of  their  disciplinary  value. 
This  demand  was  best  expressed  in  Spencer's  "Education." 

As  a  result  of  the  agitation  arising  from  this  demand,  the 
sciences  have  won  a  place  in  the  curricula  of  elementary,  sec- 
ondary, and  higher  institutions  of  education  in  Europe  and 
the  United  States. 

In  Chapter  X  we  saw  that  the  seventeenth  century  wit- 
nessed a  remarkable  development  of  scientific  knowledge, 
especially  after  the  close  of  the  period  of  religious  con- 
troversy and  war.  This  scientific  development  inspired 
successive  educational  innovators,  who  have  been 
grouped  under  the  term  sense-realists,  to  demand  a  re- 
form in  content  by  introducing  the  study  of  natural 
phenomena,  and  in  method  by  advocating  inductive  rea- 
soning. The  sense-realistic  movement  met  with  de- 
termined opposition  from  the  classicists,  who  controlled 
institutional  education,  and  it  made  but  slight  head- 
way during  the  eighteenth  century.  But  the  knowledge 
of  science  became  more  widespread,  largely  thru  the  in- 

271 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

fluence  of  the  French  encyclopedia,  and  it  greatly  im- 
pressed literary  and  philosophical  circles.  Kousseau 
and  the  naturalists  deepened  this  impression  by  their 
exaltation  of  the  study  of  nature;  and  the  movement 
received  another  great  impulse  from  Pestalozzi,  whose 
insistence  upon  sense-perception  based  upon  objective 
material  logically  led  to  nature  study  in  elementary  edu- 
cation and  to  science  in  higher  education.  But  altho 
sense-realism  was  initiated  by  Francis  Bacon  in  the 
seventeenth  century  and  received  philosophical  exposi- 
tion from  John  -Locke  in  the  early  eighteenth,  nowhere 
did  it  affect  the  education  of  the  schools  to  a  less  extent 
than  in  England.  That  it  continued  to  have  little  in- 
fluence for  the  greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  all  the  more  remarkable  when  one  considers  the  as- 
tonishing developments  in  pure  and  applied  science  that 
took  place  in  England  during  that  century. 

The  Development  of  Science  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
— In  every  field  of  human  thought  men's  ways  of  think- 
ing have  been  changed  by  the  general  acceptance  of  the 
biological  theory  of  evolution.  Beginning  with  Lamarck 
early  in  the  century  the  theory  was  elaborated  and  clari- 
fied by  successive  thinkers,  such  as  Darwin,  Wallace, 
and  Tyndall.  In  turn  the  special  branches  of  biology, 
such  as  anatomy,  physiology,  and  embryology,  made  the 
greatest  strides.  The  investigations  of  Lyell  and  Cuvier 
in  geology  proved  the  tremendous  age  of  the  earth  and 
the  former  existence  of  species  now  extinct.  The  adop- 
tion early  in  the  century  of  the  atomic  theory  in  chem- 
istry and  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  in  physics 
opened  an  era  of  rapid  development  in  the  physical 
sciences. 

But  remarkable  as  was  the  progress  in  pure  science, 
still  more  astonishing  were  the  developments  in  applied 

272 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

science,  resulting  in  inventions  and  discoveries  that  revo- 
lutionized conditions  of  living.  The  invention  of  such 
devices  as  the  cotton-gin  and  the  sewing-machine  greatly 
increased  production  and  cheapened  consumption.  The 
steamboat  and  the  locomotive  engine  immensely  im- 
proved the  means  of  transportation.  The  telegraph  and 
submarine  cable  brought  all  the  world  into  immediate 
communication.  The  discovery  of  chloroform  and  anti- 
sepsis made  for  an  improved  practice  of  medicine  and 
surgery.  All  these  theories,  discoveries,  and  inventions 
had  been  given  to  the  world  before  Herbert  Spencer 
published  his  "Education"  in  1861.  Practically  all  of 
them  had  been  made  outside  the  schools  and  universities, 
and  those  institutions  continued  their  academic  work  as 
if  ignorant  of  any  change  in  men 's  social  and  intellectual 
life.  But  this  attitude  of  mind  was  not  general  outside 
of  educational  institutions. 

The  New  Conception  of  Culture. — Therefore  a  new  con- 
ception of  culture  had  been  formulated  by  many  dis- 
tinguished thinkers,  which  emphasized  elements  that 
prepared  directly  for  the  life  that  the  individual  was 
to  live  and  denied  that  a  subject  of  study  was  cultural  in 
proportion  to  its  remoteness  from  direct  relationship  to 
life.  That  men's  ways  of  thinking  should  have  been 
wholly  changed  by  the  discoveries  of  science,  that  their 
mode  of  living  should  have  been  revolutionized  by  its 
applications  to  industry,  that  their  political  and  social 
relations  should  have  been  transformed  by  the  growth  of 
new  classes,  interests,  and  activities,  and  yet  that  no 
subject  dealing  with  these  changes  should  appear  in  the 
curriculum  of  the  school  and  university,  seemed  more 
absurd  with  the  passage  of  time.  It  can  readily  be  seen, 
therefore,  that  the  progressives  would  determine  the  im- 
portance of  a  subject  by  the  extent  to  which  its  content 

273 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

gave  the  knowledge  necessary  to  make  life  useful  and 
happy,  in  contrast  to  the  conservatives,  who  maintained 
that  the  value  of  a  subject  depended  upon  the  mental 
discipline  imparted  while  acquiring  it.  While  most  of 
the  advocates  of  science  emphasized  the  importance  of 
mental  training,  they  maintained  that  it  came  as  a  by- 
product of  the  process  of  gaining  knowledge  and  was 
equally  well  obtained  by  the  study  of  the  sciences  as 
by  the  study  of  the  classics  and  mathematics.  The  most 
typical  representative  of  the  claims  of  science  for  a 
place  in  the  curriculum  was  Herbert  Spencer. 

Herbert  Spencer  (1820-1903).— Tho  born  in  a  fam- 
ily of  culture,  Spencer  did  not  receive  a  university  edu- 
cation. He  read  deeply  in  mathematics  and  natural 
science,  studied  architecture  and  engineering,  and  finally 
engaged  in  editorial  work.  In  this  he  acquired  much  of 
the  knowledge  that  enabled  him  to  compile  the  monu- 
mental series  of  works  with  which  his  name  is  asso- 
ciated. Spencer  does  not  seem  to  have  read  widely  upon 
educational  subjects  and  appears  to  have  been  familiar 
with  the  ideas  of  only  Pestalozzi  among  modern  educa- 
tional reformers.  All  the  more  remarkable,  therefore, 
is  his  book  ''Education/'  in  which  he  attacked  the  pre- 
vailing classical  education  in  England.  The  book  con- 
sists of  four  essays,  each  of  which  appeared  at  first  as  an 
article  in  a  magazine.  It  is  written  in  a  most  attractive 
style,  and  its  somewhat  convincing  logic  won  to  the  cause 
of  science  many  adherents. 

Science  as  the  Content  of  Education. — The  old  ques- 
tion, "What  Knowledge  is  Most  Worth "  is  the  title  of 
the  first  essay.  Spencer  answers  his  own  question  by  say- 
ing it  is  the  knowledge  that  prepares  one  for  complete  liv- 
ing. In  what  does  complete  living  consist  1  In  certain  life 
activities,  which  Spencer  formulates  in  the  order  of  their 

274 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

importance  and  for  which  he  indicates  the  knowledge 
necessary.  They  are:  (1)  Activities  related  to  preserv- 
ing life  and  health,  for  which  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences 
of  physiology  and  hygiene  is  essential.  (2)  Vocational 
activities,  related  to  earning  a  living.  Since  the  main- 
tenance of  most  persons  is  secured  thru  some  form  of 
industry,  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences  of  mathematics, 
chemistry,  physics,  and  biology  is  requisite.  (3)  Do- 
mestic activities,  related  to  family  life  and  the  rearing  of 
children,  which  cannot  be  accomplished  properly  without 
a  knowledge  of  the  sciences  of  physiology,  hygiene, 
psychology,  and  ethics.  (4)  Social  and  political  activi- 
ties related  to  citizenship,  which  demand  for  their  proper 
functioning  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences  of  history,  eco- 
nomics, and  politics.  (5)  Leisure  activities  related  to 
the  gratification  of  the  tastes  and  feelings — namely, 
music,  esthetics,  and  literature.  Even  these  depend  for 
their  real  enjoyment  upon  a  knowledge  of  such  sciences 
as  psychology,  acoustics,  and  mechanics.  Moreover, 
since  they  occupy  the  leisure  of  life,  they  ought  to  oc- 
cupy the  leisure  of  education. 

It  is  evident  how  great  a  reversal  of  educational  values 
is  propounded  by  Spencer  in  comparison  with  those  of 
the  prevailing  education.  The  "culture"  subjects  which 
formed  the  mainstay  of  that  education  are  placed  by 
him  last  in  importance,  whereas  the  natural  sciences, 
which  were  ignored  by  that  education,  are  placed  first. 
Because  of  this  position  Spencer  has  been  accused  of 
crass  utilitarianism,  in  that  he  would  sacrifice  what  is 
higher  in  life,  its  culture,  for  that  which  is  lower,  its 
practical  advantage.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Spencer  was 
aiming  at  an  educational  reorganization  in  which  no 
longer  a  few  would  be  trained  for  a  life  of  elegant 
leisure  and  the  many  for  a  life  of  soulless  routine,  but  in 

275 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

which,  rather,  everybody  should  receive  an  education 
that  included  some  of  the  elements  of  knowledge,  in  the 
order  of  their  relative  importance.  Nevertheless,  in  at- 
tempting to  formulate  such  a  scheme,  he  emphasizes  the 
education  of  the  head  at  the  expense  of  the  heart;  and  in 
order  to  escape  a  one-sided  language  training,  he  advo- 
cates a  one-sided  scientific  training. 

Science  for  Mental  Discipline. — Having  proved,  as  he 
thinks,  the  superior  value  of  the  sciences  as  the  content 
of  education  in  order  to  prepare  for  a  useful  and  happy 
life,  Spencer  in  the  same  essay  combats  the  chief  claim 
of  the  classicists,  viz.,  that  the  classics  are  superior  to 
any  other  subject  for  attaining  the  true  end  of  educa- 
tion, the  development  of  general  mental  power.  Spencer 
does  not  rise  above  the  traditional  doctrine  of  the  formal 
disciplinarians  in  his  attack,  for  he  assumes  the  ex- 
istence of  general  mental  power  and  its  transfer  from 
one  field  of  mental  work  to  another.  He  simply  asserts 
that  the  sciences  are  superior  to  languages  for  this  pur- 
pose because,  while  the  latter  train  the  memory  only, 
the  former  do  that  and  in  addition  exercise  the  under- 
standing, cultivate  the  judgment,  and  develop,  sound 
habits  of  morality.  This  must  be  true,  he  maintains,  be- 
cause if  one  kind  of  knowledge  were  necessary  to  pre- 
pare for  life  activities  and  another  to  develop  mental 
power,  the  "beautiful  economy "  of  nature  would  be 
destroyed.  This  simply  begs  the  whole  question.  Biology 
shows  that  nature  is  very  prodigal,  not  economical. 
Moreover,  no  student  of  education  will  admit  that  the 
disciplinary  value  of  language  and  literature  is  confined 
to  the  memory. 

Spencer's  Principles  of  Education. — Spencer's  chief 
contribution  to  educational  progress  was  made  in  the 
first  essay  which  raises  the  whole  question  of  educational 

276 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

values.  While  the  other  chapters  furnish  suggestive 
reading,  they  offer  nothing  new.  In  the  second  chapter, 
on  Intellectual  Education,  Spencer  does  not  go  beyond 
a  restatement  of  the  principles  formulated  by  Pesta- 
lozzi,  viz.,  that  education  should  proceed  from  the  simple 
to  the  complex,  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  from 
the  empirical  to  the  rational,  and  that  it  should  be  based 
upon  interest.  The  culture-epoch  theory  should  furnish 
the  principles  for  the  organization  of  the  curriculum. 
In  the  third  chapter,  on  Moral  Education,  Spencer  re- 
peats Rousseau's  doctrine  of  natural  punishments  as  the 
basis  for  all  moral  training.  Only  in  this  way  will  the 
life  of  the  individual  be  characterized  by  self-control 
rather  than  by  blind  subservience  to  authority.  In  the 
last  chapter,  on  Physical  Education,  Spencer  presents  a 
fine  exposition  of  the  physiological  basis  of  mental  life, 
refutes  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  *  *  hardening  proc- 
ess, ' ' l  and  emphasizes  the  need  of  attention  to  proper 
diet,  clothing,  exercise,  and  games. 

Influence  of  Spencer. — Spencer's  " Education"  had  a 
profound  influence  in  England  and  a  great  influence  in 
the  United  States.  In  England  it  startled  people  into 
inquiring  anew  as  to  the  purpose  of  education  and  the 
best  way  of  attaining  it.  And  altho  in  his  last  three 
chapters  he  adds  nothing  new  to  the  ideas  of  the  great 
leaders  who  were  trying  to  psychologize  education,  those 
ideas  were  new  to  the  majority  of  Englishmen.  It  is  also 
true  that  Spencer  was  not  so  radical  in  some  of  his 
views  as  other  advocates  of  science,  like  Huxley,  but  he 
was  more  influential.  It  is  probably  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  introduction  of  a  "modern  side"  into  Eng- 
lish secondary  education  was  primarily  due  to  his  cru- 
sade. Among  the  representatives  of  the  Spencerian 

1  See  p.  193. 

277 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

movement  in  the  United  States  the  most  prominent  is 
Charles  W.  Eliot,  who  before  becoming  president  of 
Harvard  University  was  professor  of  chemistry  there. 
His  demand  for  the  equivalence  in  value  of  the  sciences 
in  the  course  of  study  and  for  the  right  of  election  in 
studies  was  generally  accepted  everywhere. 

Science  in  the  Curriculum. — 1.  Germany. — The  intro- 
duction of  science  into  the  curriculum  upon  a  par  with 
the  classics  has  been  everywhere  an  accomplishment  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  But  science  in 
a  more  modest  guise  appeared  earlier  in  the  educational 
systems  of  every  country.  In  Germany  secondary  edu- 
cation was  first  influenced  in  this  direction  thru  the 
work  of  the  pietists  at  Halle,1  which  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Realschule  in  Berlin  by  Hecker 
in  1747.  Realschulen  were  multiplied  in  Germany  dur- 
ing the  eighteenth  century ;  but  science  did  not  affect  the 
citadel  of  German  education,  the  Gymnasium,  until  the 
first  governmental  Lehrplan,  or  syllabus  for  secondary 
education,  was  issued  in  Prussia  in  1812-1816,  when,  as 
the  result  of  the  new  life  and  influences  initiated  by  the 
Weimar  circle  and  strengthened  by  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, two  hours  a  week  for  the  entire  Gymnasium  course 
were  allotted  to  physics  and  natural  history.  This  allot- 
ment was  able  to  survive  the  period  of  reaction  in  Ger- 
many which  extended  over  the  years  1820-1860.  As  the 
result  of  reforms  introduced  in  1859  and  1882,  two  new 
types  of  school  were  established  and  recognized  as  a  part 
of  the  system  of  secondary  education  on  a  par  with  the 
Gymnasium,  viz.,  the  Eealgymnasium  and  the  Olerreal- 
schule.  In  these  one  and  a  half  to  twice  as  much  science 
is  offered  as  in  the  Gymnasium  itself.  Technical  schools 
of  a  secondary  grade,  having  science  as  a  foundation  for 

1  See  p.  178. 

278 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

vocational  work,  had  appeared  as  early  as  1745,  and  be- 
tween 1815  and  1870  became  established  in  all  the  chief 
cities  of  Germany.  Since  the  Franco-Prussian  War  they 
have  greatly  increased  in  number  and  importance. 

In  elementary  education,  despite  the  earlier  efforts  of 
Comenius,1  science  received  its  first  extensive  recog- 
nition in  Germany  as  the  result  of  the  naturalistic 
movement  which  found  lodgment  in  Basedow's  Philan- 
thropinum  in  1774.  But  it  owes  its  extension  rather  to 
the  spread  of  Pestalozzianism  in  Prussian  schools  after 
1810.  Drawing  and  geography  are  now  taught  thruout 
the  course,  elementary  science  and  geometry  in  the  mid- 
dle and  upper  classes. 

In  the  universities  formal  instruction  in  science  was 
given  before  Liebig  established  his  laboratory  at  the 
University  of  Giessen  in  1825,  but  modern  scientific 
instruction  in  the  universities  based  upon  the  laboratory 
method  dates  from  that  event. 

2.  France. — Until  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  human- 
ism dominated  French  education,  and  science  received 
little  attention  except  in  two  or  three  of  the  higher  in- 
stitutions of  learning.  After  that  event,  the  Oratorians 
(Oratory  of  Jesus)  controlled  secondary  education  in 
France  and  they  were  more  friendly  to  science.  The 
Revolution  brought  changes  in  education,  as  in  other 
human  interests.  In  1794  the  ~Ecole  Normale  (Normal 
School)  was  founded  at  Paris,  where  such  distinguished 
scientists  as  Laplace  and  Lagrange  gave  instruction; 
and  a  considerable  amount  of  science  was  introduced 
into  the  lycee,  the  secondary  school,  which  was  estab- 
lished in  1802.  Science  struggled  for  greater  recogni- 
tion until  1852,  when  it  was  theoretically  put  upon  a 
par  with  classics.  Nevertheless,  tho  the  number  of 

^ee  p.  171. 

279 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

courses  in  the  various  sciences  and  the  amount  of  time 
given  to  them  have  been  greatly  increased  in  the  sec- 
ondary school,  the  scientific  course  does  not  even  now 
equal  the  classical  in  dignity.  Since  the  Franco-Prussian 
"War  (1870),  the  amount  of  science  introduced  into  the 
elementary  school  in  France  has  constantly  increased. 
Informal  instruction  in  science  in  the  lower  classes  is 
now  associated  with  drawing,  constructive  work,  and 
geography ;  and  in  the  higher  classes  regular  and  formal 
courses  are  given  in  the  natural  sciences.  Moreover,  the 
normal  schools  which  train  teachers  for  the  elementary 
schools  give  very  thoro  instruction  in  the  various  natural 
sciences  and  emphasize  their  application  to  practical 
life. 

3.  England. — The  work  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  at  Cam- 
bridge resulted  in  several  chairs  of  mathematics  and  the 
physical  sciences  being  established  there  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Nevertheless  science  received  little  attention  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  until  1869,  when  the  laboratory 
method  was  introduced;  and  altho  in  recent  years  there 
has  been  considerable  development,  those  conservative 
institutions  are  still  very  backward  in  this  respect.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  whatever  advance  has  been  made  in 
scientific  instruction  in  higher  institutions  of  learning 
in  England  has  come  from  two  sources:  (1)  from  the 
municipal  universities  that  have  been  established  in  Lon- 
don, Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  Birmingham;  (2)  from 
a  series  of  higher  technical  institutions,  'which  were 
founded  by  the  government  between  1857  and  1907, 
when  they  were  all  merged  into  a  corporation  known  as 
the  Imperial  College  of  Science  and  Technology. 

As  regards  English  secondary  education  we  saw  in 
Chapter  X  that  ''realistic"  studies  had  been  introduced 
to  some  extent  in  the  academies  established  by  the  dis- 

280 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

senters  in  the  seventeenth,  century.  But  these  academies 
greatly  declined  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  as  science 
had  never  been  introduced  in  any  form  into  the  aristo- 
cratic private  institutions  known  in  England  as  "  public 
schools, "  the  nineteenth  century  opened  with  very  little 
instruction  in  science  in  English  secondary  education. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  century  a  strong  movement  in 
opposition  to  the  prevailing  classical  education  was  inau- 
gurated by  George  Combe  (1788-1858),  and  his  friends, 
which  resulted  in  the  establishment  after  1848  of  "sec- 
ular" schools  in  many  of  the  cities  of  Great  Britain,  in 
which  the  curriculum  was  strongly  scientific  in  char- 
acter. Tho  they  did  not  live  long,  their  existence  raised 
the  whole  question  of  the  content  of  the  curriculum  in 
the  secondary  schools  and  undoubtedly  helped  the  move- 
ment, of  which  Herbert  Spencer  was  the  mouthpiece, 
for  the  equivalence  of  science  in  that  curriculum.  The 
equivalence  was  secured  by  the  establishment  of  the 
"modern  side"  in  the  public  schools  after  1868,  as  the 
result  of  a  governmental  investigation  which  uncovered 
the  almost  complete  absence  of  science  in  those  institu- 
tions. This  was  done,  however,  very  reluctantly  by  the 
schools,  the  teachers  in  which  openly  disparaged  the 
new  subjects.  Even  today,  because  of  the  large  part 
played  in  English  life  by  social  prestige,  the  "modern 
side"  has  never  attained  the  standing  of  the  classical 
course.  Scientific  instruction  has  received  a  great  im- 
petus in  secondary  education  as  a  result  of  the  estab- 
lishment by  the  government  in  recent  years  of  many 
independent  scientific  secondary  schools  and  the  sub- 
sidizing in  the  existing  schools  of  classes  in  the  vari- 
ous sciences  and  subjects  involving  their  application. 
In  elementary  education  classes  in  geography  and  ele- 
mentary science  were  subsidized,  since  only  the  three  R's 

281 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

were  required  subjects;  but  after  1900,  as  a  result  of 
a  revision  of  the  curriculum,  they  have  been  made  pre- 
scribed subjects. 

4.  The  United  States. — a.  Higher  Education.  In  no 
other  country  did  science  receive  so  early  recognition  in 
education  as  in  the  United  States.  Practically  all  the 
colleges  that  were  founded  in  the  seventeenth  and  eight- 
eenth centuries,  beginning  with  Harvard,  introduced 
some  subject  of  science  into  the  curriculum  almost  from 
the  very  beginning,  usually  astronomy,  "natural 
philosophy/'  or  "natural  history."  Instruction,  it  is 
true,  was  usually  by  lecture  or  out  of  books ;  for  the  most 
part  it  was  not  until  the  nineteenth  century  that  labora- 
tory demonstrations  accompanied  the  instructor's  lec- 
tures in  chemistry  and  physics,  and  not  until  after  the 
middle  of  the  century  that  students  were  provided  with 
laboratory  facilities.  The  publication  of  Darwin's 
"Origin  of  Species"  in  1859  and  the  spread  of  the  be- 
lief in  the  doctrine  of  evolution  by  such  leaders  as  Louis 
Agassiz  and  Asa  Gray  at  Harvard  helped  to  create  a 
demand  for  the  equivalence  of  science  in  the  curriculum 
and  for  the  introduction  of  the  elective  system.  This 
was  effected  by  President  Eliot  at  Harvard  in  1869  and 
gradually  adopted  by  most  other  colleges  and  universi- 
ties. In  the  meantime  the  establishment  of  the  Rens- 
selaer  Polytechnic  Institute  at  Troy  in  1825  had  inaugu- 
rated a  movement  for  the  founding  of  higher  special  in- 
stitutions of  applied  science  and  technology,  sometimes 
in  association  with  existing  institutions  and  sometimes 
independent  of  them.  Finally  the  Morrill  Act,  passed 
by  Congress  in  1862,  which  appropriated  thirteen  million 
acres  of  public  land  for  the  maintenance  in  every  state 
of  a  college  devoted  primarily,  tho  not  exclusively,  to 
the  promotion  of  branches  of  learning  related  to  agri- 

282 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

culture  and  the  mechanic  arts  results  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  similar  schools  of  applied  science  in  almost 
every  state,  usually,  tho  not  always,  in  connection  with 
the  state  universities.  As  a  result  of  all  these  move- 
ments it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  today  science,  cer- 
tainly its  spirit  and  its  methods,  dominates  the  higher 
education  of  the  United  States. 

b.  Secondary  Education.  The  emphasis  upon  science 
in  American  education  is  primarily  due  to  the  academy.1 
As  early  as  1700  the  Latin  grammar  schools  had  begun 
to  make  provision  for  practical  or  applied  science,  in 
particular  for  surveying  and  navigation.  The  first  acad- 
emy, that  founded  by  Franklin  in  Philadelphia  in  1751, 
had  three  '  *  schools ' '  or  courses,  of  which  two  were  avow- 
edly of  direct  usefulness  for  economic  life  in  the  new 
land.  From  that  time  the  academy  was  par  excellence  a 
secondary  school  that  conformed  closely  to  the  needs  of 
the  people.  Not  only  did  the  science  of  mathematics  re- 
ceive practical  applications,  but  from  the  beginning  other 
forms  of  pure  science  were  taught.  These  were  generally 
given  under  the  title  of  " natural  philosophy,'7  tho 
astronomy  and  geography  nearly  always  had  a  place  in 
the  curriculum.  When  the  modern  public  high  school 
began  its  career,  it  maintained  the  friendly  attitude 
towards  science  which  characterized  the  private  academy. 
The  earliest  public  high  school,  which  was  established  in 
Boston  in  1821,  included  geography  in  the  first  year, 
mathematics,  navigation,  and  surveying  in  the  second, 
and  natural  philosophy  and  astronomy  in  the  third. 
As  in  the  colleges,  instruction  was  generally  given  by 
means  of  textbooks,  sometimes  with  demonstrations  by 
the  teacher,  but  seldom,  if  ever,  with  laboratory  practice 
on  the  part  of  the  student.  But  after  the  Civil  War 

^ee  p.  164. 

283 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

this  defect  began  to  be  remedied ;  and  the  scientific  cur- 
riculum in  the  high  school  was  expanded  to  include 
physics,  chemistry,  botany,  and  zoology.  In  fact  the 
demand  that  the  student  have  a  general  knowledge  of 
all  these  sciences  resulted  in  a  good  deal  of  superficiality. 
Since  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  however, 
the  tendency  in  secondary  education  has  been  to  limit 
each  student  to  a  few  well-organized  courses  taught  by 
the  laboratory  method,  and  especially  to  require  one 
"general  science"  course  of  all  pupils. 

c.  Elementary  Education.  Down  to  1840,  when  Hor- 
ace Mann's  campaign  began  to  have  some  influence,  the 
subjects  taught  generally  in  the  elementary  schools  of 
the  United  States  were  the  three  R's — i.  e.,  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic — with  spelling  and  grammar. 
Geography  was  the  only  subject  of  a  scientific  nature 
that  received  any  attention,  and  then  only  in  the  best 
schools.  Horace  Mann's  campaign  was  successful  in 
securing  the  general  adoption  of  physiology  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  the  elementary  school  in  the  East  by  the 
commencement  of  the  Civil  War.  As  we  saw  in  Chapter 
XIV,  the  Oswego  movement  after  the  war  resulted  in 
the  introduction  of  object  teaching,  which,  tho  of  a 
formal  and  stereotyped  nature,  was  a  transition  to  the 
teaching  of  elementary  science.  Since  the  commence- 
ment of  the  twentieth  century  the  tendency  has  been  to 
give  a  knowledge  of  elementary  science  in  the  form  of 
observational  "nature  study,"  which  makes  a  far  greater 
appeal  to  children  of  elementary  school  age  than  sys- 
tematic science. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Spencer,  Huxley, 
Science,  etc. 

284 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chap.  XXXVII. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  III.  Chap. 
X. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
XII. 

QUICK,  R.  H.    Educational  Reformers.    Chap.  XIX. 

SPENCER,  HERBERT.     Education. 

YOUMANS,  E.  L.     Culture  Demanded  by  Modern  Life. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Is  there  any  connection  between  the  nature  study  move- 
ment and  the  present  tendency  to  give  instruction  in  agri- 
culture in  the  rural  elementary  and  high  schools? 

2.  In  what  other  ways  besides  the  use  of  window-boxes  for 
growing  plants  and  vegetables,  aquaria  for  fish,  and  excur- 
sions into  the  country  can  elementary  school  children  be  inter- 
ested in  nature  and  science? 

3.  How  can  other  elementary  school  subjects,  like  litera- 
ture, drawing,  and  constructive  work,  be  correlated  with  nature 
study  in  the  elementary  school? 

4.  Is   there   any   danger  that   scientific  methods   may   be 
pushed  too  far  in  the  teaching  of  such  subjects  as  language, 
literature,  and  history  in  the  secondary  school? 

5.  Is  there  any  danger  that  too  exclusive  use  of  the  lab- 
oratory method  in  such  sciences  as  physics  and  biology  will 
result  in  an  ignorance  of  their  relation  to  other  subjects  and 
to  the  world  in  general? 

6.  Was  there  any  justification  for  the  religious  objection 
to  the  teaching  of  science  in  the  school  which  prevailed  in 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century? 

7.  Is  there  any  evidence  that  the  adherents  of  natural  science 
are  taking  the  same  unfriendly  attitude  towards  new  subjects 
in  the  curriculum  that  characterized  the  attitude  of  the  ad- 
herents of  the  classics  towards  science  in  the  mid-nineteenth 
century  ? 

285 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION   THRU  PHILANTHROPY   AND 
THRU  STATE  CONTROL 

Outline. — The  education  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  char- 
acterized by  a  socializing  process  which  effected  the  almost 
complete  secularization  of  education,  the  elimination  of  ecclesi- 
astical domination,  and  the  substitution  of  state  support  and 
control.  The  movement  went  thru  three  stages: 

1.  The  period  of  philanthropy.    In  this  period  the  reforms 
in  the  organization  and  practices  of  education  were  under- 
taken by  voluntary  effort,  usually  of  philanthropic  organiza- 
tions.    The  Sunday  school  movement,  the  monitorial  systems, 
and  the  infant  school  movement  illustrate  this  stage. 

2.  The  period  of  transition  to  state  control.     The  motive 
impelling  to  state  control  differed  in  the  different  states.     In 
Prussia  the  motive  was  to  develop  a  strong  state ;  in  the  United 
States,  to  train  for  citizenship;  in  England,  state  control  was 
chiefly  the  result  of  the  conflict  of  class  interests. 

3.  The  period  of  socialized  education.    In  this  last  period 
the  state  has  become  conscious  of  the  great  purpose  of  educa- 
tion, namely,  to  be  the  instrument  of  society  to  attain  its 
conscious  goals  and  ideals.     vThe  social  motive  emphasized  at 
first  the  political  aspect  of  social  life,  and  later  the  economic; 
and  this  difference  in  emphasis  has  resulted  in  the  introduction 
of  different  subject  matter  and  different  practices. 

Meaning  of  the  Sociological  Movement. — The  educa- 
tion of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
characterized  by  an  insistence  upon  a  psychological 
study  of  the  child  in  order  to  make  instruction  conform 

286 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

to  his  developing  powers,  and  it  resulted  in  greatly  im- 
proved methods  of  teaching.  It  was  also  characterized 
by  a  socializing  process  which  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
reactionT against  the  extreme  individualism  of  Rousseau, 
a  process  which  emphasized  the  need  of  preparing  the 
individual  to  live  in  a  constantly  changing  social  en- 
vironment, and  which  resulted  in  profound  changes  in 
the  subject  matter  of  instruction  and  in  its  organization 
and  administration.  This  socializing  process  effected  the 
almost  complete  secularization  of  education,  by  the  elim- 
ination of  ecclesiastical  domination  and  the  substitution 
of  state  support  and  control.  In  the  middle  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  education  was  still  dominated  by  religious 
ideals  and  generally  controlled  by  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zations. But  the  church  was  unable  to  cope  with  the 
problems  resulting  from  the  social  changes  that  there- 
after took  place.  It  had  neither  the  vision,  the  energy, 
nor  the  financial  power.  Nevertheless,  it  bitterly  op- 
posed each  step  in  the  process  of  socialization ;  hence  the 
victory  of  complete  social  control  of  education  was  won 
at  different  times  in  the  different  nations  of  western 
Europe.  It  was  first  secured  in  Germany  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century,  in  the  United  States  only  towards 
its  close,  in  France  but  yesterday,  and  in  conservative 
England  it  has  not  yet  been  won.  The  movement  has 
passed  thru  three  stages:  (1)  the  period  of  philan- 
thropy, in  which  private  organizations — usually  of  a 
charitable  nature — undertook  to  do  what  the  church  was 
unable  to  do;  (2)  a  transition  period,  during  which,  as  a 
result  of  the  political  revolution  in  France,  the  growth 
of  a  new  nation  in  the  United  States,  and  the  industrial 
revolution  in  England,  the  movement  toward  social  con- 
trol was  greatly  accelerated;  (3)  the  political  period,  in 
which  the  secular  forces  have  secured  control  and  estab- 

287 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

lished  state  systems  of  education.  It  will  be  necessary 
briefly  to  consider  each  of  these  stages  in  the  process  of 
socialization  before  considering  the  results  of  the  move- 
ment as  a  whole. 

1.     THE  PERIOD  OF  PHILANTHROPY  IN  EDUCATION 

Social  evolution  has  been  characterized  by  an  increas- 
ing extension  of  state  activity.  In  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  only  duties  the  state  undertook  were  to  protect 
life  and  property  thru  its  legislative,  executive,  and 
judicial  powers.  Such  social  functions  as  street  light- 
ing, water  supply,  fire  protection,  and  poor  relief  were 
under  private  initiative  and  control.  Voluntary  en- 
deavor and  experiment  had  first  to  show  the  state  that 
an  activity  could  an'd  should  be  undertaken  by  the  state, 
before  that  view  was  generally  accepted.  This  has  been 
especially  true  of  education.  Almost  every  reform  in 
organization  and  practice  has  been  first  demonstrated 
as  practicable  and  useful  by  private  enterprise,  before 
it  has  been  adopted  by  the  state.  Hence,  when  it  became 
evident  that  the  church  could  not  meet  the  educational 
needs  of  a  changing  civilization,  society  had  first  to  rely 
upon  the  efforts  of  voluntary  organizations.  The  de- 
gree to  which  this  was  true  differed  in  the  various  coun- 
tries, being  least  true  in  Germany  where  the  control  of 
education  was  earliest  taken  over  by  the  state,  and  most 
true  in  England  where  the  conception  of  education  as 
necessarily  supervised  by  the  church  has  been  longest 
maintained.  Even  in  Germany  we  have  already  studied 
the  philanthropic  reforms  of  Francke  at  Halle,  the 
Philanthropinum  of  Basedow  at  Dessau  and  the  indus- 
trial movement  of  Fellenberg  at  Hofwyl,  in  Switzerland, 
all  of  which  resulted  in  valuable  reforms  in  the  prevail- 

288 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

ing  system  of  education.  But  the  philanthropic  move- 
ments in  education  have  been  most  influential  in  England 
and  the  United  States,  and  we  shall  now  turn  to  a  brief 
consideration  of  the  most  important  of  them. 

The  Charity  School  in  England.— The  close  of  the 
Restoration  period  left  England  unprovided  with  ele- 
mentary schools  and  the  Established  Church  did  very 
little  to  fill  the  void.  Some  charity  schools  were  estab- 
lished in  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  the  abject  poverty 
of  a  large  proportion  of  the  people,  the  utter  ignorance 
of  the  majority,  the  comparative  indifference  to  the 
needs  of  poor  children  suggested  to  a  group  of  philan- 
thropists at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  organization  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge.  This  society  did  splendid  work  in  opening 
charity  schools  thruout  the  country,  in  which  the  chil- 
dren received  not  only  free  instruction  and  books, 
but  often  free  clothing  and  food.  The  object  of  the 
schools  of  the  Society  was  "to  make  them  [the  children] 
loyal  church  members  and  to  fit  them  for  work  in  that 
station  of  life  in  which  it  hath  pleased  their  Heavenly 
Father  to  place  them."  These  schools  were,  in  other 
words,  something  in  the  nature  of  vocational  schools  to 
prepare  girls  for  domestic  service  and  boys  for  appren- 
ticeship in  the  more  laborious  trades.  Incidentally  in- 
struction in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  of  an  ele- 
mentary nature,  and  much  instruction  in  religion  and 
morals  was  also  provided.  By  the  middle  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  the  Society  had  established  more  than 
two  thousand  schools,  attended  by  more  than  fifty  thou- 
sand children.  Yet  despite  its  modest  aim  and  the  social 
value  of  its  work,  it  met  with  much  opposition  among 
many  in  the  upper  classes  who  feared  the  evil  effect  of 
education  upon  the  "lower  classes."  An  offshoot  of 

289 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

this  society  was  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  which  purposed  to  do  for  the 
colonies  what  the  parent  society  was  doing  for  the 
mother  country.  It  was  quite  successful  in  establish- 
ing charity  schools,  especially  in  the  middle  colonies  in 
America,  and  by  the  opposition  it  aroused  among  the 
dissenting  sects  it  stimulated  an  interest  in  an  extension 
of  education  among  the  poor. 

The  Sunday  School  Movement. — In  1780  a  manufac- 
turer of  Gloucester,  Robert  Raikes,  in  the  hope  of 
doing  something  to  lessen  the  ignorance  and 
squalor  among  the  poor  of  the  town,  opened  for  both 
adults  and  children  a  school  which  was  to  meet  on  Sun- 
days. Tho  Raikes  did  not  originate  the  Sunday 
school  movement  he  became  its  first  great  propagandist. 
He  paid  his  teachers  a  shilling  a  Sunday  for  their  work. 
His  school  was  so  successful  that  others  were  soon  estab- 
lished in  many  cities  and  towns  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  a  Sunday  School  Society  was  founded  in  1785  to 
extend  the  work.  In  1786  the  movement  was  brought  to 
the  United  States  and  spread  with  great  rapidity,  many 
associations  being  formed  to  propagate  the  idea.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  at  first  the  Sunday  school  was  as 
much  a  secular  as  a  religious  institution,  and  also  that 
the  teachers  were  paid  for  their  work ;  but  gradually  the 
secular  instruction  was  abandoned  and  the  teaching  be- 
came voluntary.  It  also  became  less  efficient;  but  the 
Sunday  school  movement  was  another  step  in  the  exten- 
sion of  education  among  the  masses  of  the  people. 

The  Monitorial  Systems  of  Bell  and  Lancaster. — In 
1798  Joseph  Lancaster  (1778-1838)  founded  the  first 
"monitorial  school"  in  one  of  the  districts  of  London 
inhabited  by  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  of  the  popu- 
lation. In  order  that  he  might  extend  the  benefit  of 

290 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

his  teaching  to  as  many  children  as  possible,  he  hit  upon 
the  device  of  using  older  pupils  as  assistant  teachers  for 
the  younger  children.  He  first  taught  the  lesson  to  these 
"monitors,"  and  each  of  them  in  turn  taught  it  to  the 
group  of  children  that  had  been  placed  under  his  con- 
trol. With  this  system  a  single  teacher  was  able  to 
direct  the  instruction  of  a  very  large  number  of  pupils, 
Lancaster  himself  caring  for  a  thousand  in  his  school. 
Lancaster  insisted  that  his  aim  was  to  establish  a  non- 
sectarian  system  of  education,  and  in  1808  an  associa- 
tion made  up  chiefly  of  dissenters  was  formed  to  organ- 
ize his  schools  upon  an  efficient  basis,  as  he  had  fallen 
badly  into  debt.  In  1814  this  association  assumed  the 
name  of  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  and 
did  a  remarkable  service  for  the  cause  of  education  in 
founding  Lancasterian  schools.  ,So  successful  were  they 
that  the  Established  Church,  fearing  their  non-sectarian 
influence,  established  in  1811  the  National  Society  for 
Promoting  the  Education  of  the  Poor  in  the  Principles 
of  the  Established  Church,  and  this  society  absorbed  the 
Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  which  has 
already  been  described.  The  schools  of  the  National 
Society  were  placed  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  An- 
drew Bell  (1753-1832),  who  had  used  the  monitorial  sys- 
tem while  at  the  head  of  an  orphan  asylum  in  India. 
They  differed  little  from  those  of  the  British  and  For- 
eign Society,  except  in  giving  dogmatic  instruction  in 
the  Anglican  catechism  and  prayer  book. 

Nature  of  the  Work  of  the  Monitorial  Societies. — The 
monitorial  societies  rendered  a  remarkable  service  to 
English  education  in  a  number  of  ways.  They  not  only 
provided  the  sole  opportunity  for  thousands  of  poor 
children  to  receive  any  kind  of  education,  but  their 
schools  were  efficiently  organized  and  disciplined,  the 

291 


Fig.  1  shows  a  class  seated  on  a  form  at  a  writing  desk.  Fig.  2 
shows  five  monitors  giving  instruction  to  five  classes.  The 
boys  are  assembled  at  the  draft  stations,  their  toes  to  lines 
cut  in  the  floor.  With  pointers  the  monitors  are  giving  in- 
struction from  lessons  suspended  from  the  lesson  rail 


Interior  of  the  Central  School  of  the  British  and  Foreign  School 
Society,  Borough  Road,  Southwark,  showing  365  pupils 
seated 

THE  MONITORIAL  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

work  was  thoroly  systematized,  the  children  were  well 
graded  and  received  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  elemen- 
tary subjects.  However  the  monitorial  system  has 
been  severely  criticized:  the  discipline  was  most  rigid 
and  permitted  of  no  spontaneity;  the  instruction  was 
wholly  formal  and  mechanical  and  based  upon  memor- 
iter  work ;  the  military  organization,  with  its  drill  and 
precision,  its  system  of  badges  and  banners,  offices,  re- 
wards and  punishments,  was  wholly  alien  to  the  newer 
and  truer  conception  of  education  which,  we  have  seen, 
had  developed  on  the  Continent.  But  the  monitorial 
schools  were  a  great  improvement  upon  the  ordinary 
schools  of  the  time,  in  which  two-thirds  of  the  child's 
time  was  wasted  and  the  formation  of  slipshod  habits 
was  common.  Moreover,  the  rivalry  between  the  two  so- 
cieties kept  the  subject  of  general  education  before  the 
English  people  and  gradually  prepared  them  for  the 
adoption  of  the  principle  of  education  as  a  state 
function. 

The  Monitorial  System  in  the  "United  States. — The  mon- 
itorial system  of  the  Lancasterian  type  was  introduced 
into  the  United  States  in  JL806  and  spread  with  great 
rapidity  thruout  the  country.  In  fact  it  came  as  a 
godsend  to  the  numerous  charitable  societies  that  were 
formed  in  the  first  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, having  for  their  aim  the  extension  of  elementary 
education  among  the  poor.  Its  comparative  inexpen- 
siveness  appealed  not  only  to  such  societies,  but  also  to 
legislatures,  when  public  opinion  had  become  aroused  in 
favor  of  a  state  system  of  schools.  And  its  efficient  sys- 
tem of  grading  in  large  and  hygienic  rooms,  its  improved 
apparatus  and  good  discipline  served  to  discredit  the 
one-room,  one-teacher,  ungraded  school  that  prevailed 
even  in  many  of  the  cities.  In  fact,  the  monitorial  sys- 

293 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

tern  was  generally  adopted  not  only  for  elementary  edu- 
cation but  for  secondary  schools  also,  in  the  three 
decades  previous  to  the  Civil  War.  But  as  material 
wealth  increased  thruout  the  country  and  the  people 
became  better  informed  as  to  the  need  of  education  and 
more  willing  to  contribute  to  its  support,  this  formal 
and  mechanical  method  was  abandoned  in  favor  of  the 
psychological  conceptions  of  Pestalozzianism. 

The  Infant  School  Movement. — This  form  of  philan- 
thropy in  education  originated  in  eastern  France  where 
Jean  Frederic  Oberlin,  the  pastor  of  a  district  that  had 
been  ravaged  by  war,  attempted  to  give  some  training 
to  the  very  young  children  under  his  charge.  It  was 
brought  to  Paris  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, but  was  not  generally  adopted  in  France  until  its 
efficacy  had  been  shown  in  England.  Then  in  1833  it 
was  made  part  of  the  national  system  of  schools,  and  in 
1881  the  name  "maternal  school"  given  to  it.  It  is  the 
substitute  for  the  kindergarten  in  the  French  system; 
but,  tho  physical  exercises,  singing,  drawing,  and  other 
kindergarten  activities  are  present,  development  is  not 
the  aim,  and  imparting  information  is  much  more  em- 
phasized. 

It  was  in  Great  Britain  that  the  infant  school  had  its 
greatest  development.  It  was  first  established  at  New 
Lanark,  Scotland,  in  1816  by  Eobert  Owen,  who  had  not 
heard  of  the  French  movement.  Owen  was  a  philan- 
thropic manufacturer,  who  adopted  the  infant  school 
idea  as  a  means  of  combating  the  evil  results  of  the 
factory  system  on  children.  The  foundling  and  orphan 
asylums  bound  out  children  of  five,  six,  or  seven 
years  of  age  for  nine-year  terms  to  manufacturers,  who 
were  permitted  to  work  them  twelve  hours  a  day  and 
at  the  end  of  their  apprenticeship  turn  them,  ignorant 

294 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

and  degraded,  into  the  mass  of  the  population.  Owen 
organized  in  this  school  a  kind  of  education  for  children 
from  three  to  seven  in  which  singing,  dancing,  and  out- 
door games  were  associated  with  teaching  about  nature 
and  common  things,  all  within  the  comprehension  of  the 
children.  It  was  an  excellent  scheme  and  very  success- 
ful. Unfortunately  when  it  was  adopted  by  Samuel 
Wilderspin,  who  became  the  great  exponent  of  the  in- 
fant school  idea,  he  made  it  in  every  essential  respect  a 
small  copy  of  the  school  for  older  children,  without  the 
element  of  spontaneity  which  had  been  so  attractive  at 
New  Lanark.  Wilderspin  was  very  active,  however,  in 
spreading  the  infant  school  idea.  His  own  school  in 
London  was  much  visited,  he  wrote  voluminously  about 
the  movement,  went  upon  lecture  tours  thruout  the 
country,  and  was  instrumental  in  establishing  an  Infant 
School  Society  in  1824,  which  founded  a  great  many 
such  schools. 

As  stated  in  Chapter  XIV,  the  Reverend  Charles 
Mayo  in  1834  founded  the  Home  and  Colonial 
School  Society  for  training  infant  school  teachers.  The 
Society  undertook  to  adopt  Pestalozzian  ideas  in  its  work 
and  this  resulted  in  an  improvement  in  methods,  but 
it"  was  a  stereotyped  form  of  Pestalozzianism,  which  had 
little  of  the  spirit  of  the  founder  in  it.  Another  advance 
was  made  in  the  seventies,  when  some  of  the  practices  of 
the  kindergarten  were  adopted.  It  must  not  be  supposed 
that  the  multiplication  of  infant  schools,  monitorial 
schools,  and  other  charitable  schools  adequately  supplied 
the  educational  needs  of  Great  Britain.  When  the  Re- 
form Bill  of  1832  was  passed,  education  was  being  pro- 
vided apparently  for  not  more  than  one-third  of  the 
children  of  England.  Real  progress  only  began  with  the 
passage  of  the  Forster  Elementary  Education  Act  of 

295 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

1870,  which  established  a  state-supported  and  state-con- 
trolled school  system. 

Infant  schools  sprang  up  in  the  United  States  in  the 
early  twenties  and  spread  rapidly  to  most  of  the  cities 
of  the  country.  At  first  they  were  separate  institutions 
unconnected  with  the  elementary  schools,  the  latter 
sometimes,  as  in  Boston,  demanding  for  admission  an 
ability  to  read  and  write.  They  were,  moreover,  nearly 
always  conducted  upon  the  monitorial  principle,  which 
permitted  the  enrollment  of  large  numbers  in  one  school. 
Generally,  as  in  New  York,  the  infant  school  developed 
into  the  primary  department  of  the  elementary  school, 
and  women  were  nearly  always  employed  as  teachers. 
The  infant  schools,  like  the  monitorial  schools,  were 
generally  fostered  by  associations  of  charitable  people, 
such  as  the  Public  School  Society  of  New  York,  which 
was  founded  early  in  the  century.  The  work  of  these 
organizations  is  considered  at  greater  length  in  Chap- 
ter XVIII. 

2.     THE  PERIOD  OF  TRAHSITIOH  TO  STATE  CONTROL 

Education  to  Develop  a  Strong  State :  Germany. — Even 
before  the  period  of  political  and  industrial  revolutions 
the  importance  of  education  as  an  instrument  of  the 
state  to  strengthen  its  political  organisation  and  bring 
about  social  reform  was  recognized  by  the  enlightened 
despots,  as  typified  in  Frederick  the  Great.  Frederick 
determined  to  destroy  the  ecclesiastical  domination  of 
the  schools  in  Prussia  without  eliminating  religious  in- 
struction, and  Germany  has  since  worked  out  the  prob- 
lem of  state  control  upon  that  basis.  Despite  Frederick's 
interest,  however,  the  prolonged  opposition  of  the  clergy 
prevented  any  actual  progress  toward  realization  of  the 

296 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

political  purpose  of  education  until  the  overthrow  of 
Prussia  by  Napoleon  in  1806.  In  the  struggle  for  na- 
tional freedom  that  followed,  it  was  recognized  by  the 
German  leaders  that  a  new  system  of  education  domi- 
nated by  the  political  motive  of  patriotism  was  neces- 
sary. A  reorganization  was  undertaken  whereby  the 
last  vestiges  of  ecclesiastical  control  were  removed,  Pesta- 
lozzian  methods  of  teaching  introduced,  and  the  aim  to 
use  the  school  to  make  Prussia  a  strong  state  was  adopted. 
The  adoption  of  the  political  motive  in  Germany  in  the 
eighteenth  century  and  its  realization  in  the  nineteenth 
rendered  philanthropic  movements  merely  incidental 
and  supplementary  in  German  education,  instead  of  pri- 
mary as  in  English. 

Education  for  Citizenship:  The  United  States;  France. 
— The  political  revolutions  in  the  American  colonies 
and  in  France  emphasized  the  political  motive  from  an- 
other point  of  view.  As  a  result  of  the  Revolution  the 
United  States,  in  theory  at  least,  became  a  democracy; 
and  the  general  diffusion  of  education  as  an  absolute 
essential  to  the  realization  of  the  democratic  ideal  was 
recognized  by  early  statesmen  like  Jefferson.  But  as  we 
shall  see  later,  in  Chapter  XVIII,  it  was  not  until  the 
development  of  the  new  democracy  in  the  "West,  and 
the  disappearance  of  restrictions  upon  the  suffrage  in 
the  East,  that  education  for  citizenship  became  the  ac- 
cepted aim.  The  intelligent  participation  of  all  in  the 
affairs  of  government  depends  upon  the  education  of 
all  into  an  understanding  of  those  affairs.  For  its  own 
safety  and  preservation  the  state  must  itself  undertake 
the  education  of  its  citizens.  We  find,  therefore,  the 
political  motive  of  education  for  citizenship  supersed- 
ing the  religious  at  a  comparatively  early  date  and  the 
principle  of  the  state-supported  and  state-controlled 

297 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

schools  generally  accepted  by  the  American  people  before 
the  Civil  War. 

The  French  Revolution  went  far  beyond  the  Ameri- 
can in  its  educational  aims  and  proposals.  Universal, 
compulsory,  free  education  supported  and  controlled  by 
the  state  was  demanded  by  the  leaders.  Many  laws  were 
passed  looking  towards  the  realization  of  this  ideal,  but 
because  of  the  chaotic  conditions  of  the  age  little  was 
accomplished.  Napoleon  established  the  University  of 
France,  practically  as  a  department  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment, to  control  secondary  and  higher  education,  but 
he  ignored  elementary  education.  And  tho  public 
elementary  education  was  introduced  in  1833,  the  church 
practically  controlled  it  until  the  establishment  of  the 
Third  Republic.  Gambetta  and  the  republican  leaders 
determined  that  the  Republic  should  rest  upon  the  edu- 
cational foundations  demanded  by  the  Revolution,  and 
the  political  history  of  France  during  the  past  genera- 
tion has  been  in  part  the  history  of  the  struggle  between 
church  and  state  for  the  control  of  education.  By  a 
series  of  laws  beginning  with  that  of  1881,  which  made 
primary  education  free,  to  the  law  of  1904,  which  closed 
the  religious  schools,  education  in  France  has  been  secu- 
larized and  brought  under  the  control  of  the  state  to  a 
degree  that  has  taken  place  in  no  other  western  nation. 

Education  as  the  Result  of  the  Conflict  of  Class  Inter- 
ests: England. — The  development  of  a  state  system  of 
education  in  England  has  not  been  determined  by  a 
definite  motive,  as  in  the  case  of  France,  Germany,  and 
the  United  States,  but  has  taken  place  in  a  haphazard 
manner  resulting  from  a  conflict  of  class  interests.  The 
progress  of  public  education  has  been  retarded  by  the 
determination  of  the  Established  Church  to  maintain  its 
control  over  education  and  by  the  desire  generally  held 

298 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

by  the  upper  classes  to  keep  the  mass  of  the  people  in 
ignorance.  England  did  not  have  any  political  revolu- 
tion in  the  nineteenth  century,  but  it  did  have  a  great 
industrial  revolution.  The  invention  of  machinery  for 
spinning  anoweaving,  run  by  the  stationary  steam 
engine,  resulted  in  the  displacement  of  the  domestic  or 
home  system  of  industry  by  the  factory  system.  This 
in  turn  resulted  in  the  crowding  of  people  into  new 
cities  that  grew  up,  particularly  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  coal  and  iron  mines  of  the  northeast.  The  fac- 
tories were  filled  with  women  and  children  as  well  as 
men,  working  long  hours  and  under  outrageous  condi- 
tions of  housing  and  sanitation.  The  landed  gentry,  who 
viewed  with  dislike  the  increasing  power  of  the  manufac- 
turers, passed  a  series  of  factory  acts,  beginning  with 
that  of  1802  and  culminating  with  the  great  system  of 
legislation  of  1835,  looking  to  the  protection  of  the 
women  and  children  working  in  the  factories  and  mines. 
The  manufacturing  interests  retorted  with  the  passage 
of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  providing  for  a  more  equit- 
able distribution  of  Parliamentary  representation,  and 
with  the  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  removing  the  protec- 
tive tariff  upon  agricultural  products  and  cheapening 
the  price  of  bread.  As  a  result  of  the  struggle  between 
these  interests  the  laboring  class  were  enabled  to  secure 
some  of  their  rights,  among  them  that  of  education. 
The  Factory  Act  of  1802  provided  that  apprentices 
should  not  work  more  than  twelve  hours  a  day  and 
should  receive  instruction  in  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic, and  religion.  And  altho  the  law  was  not 
successfully  enforced,  it  aroused  a  great  amount  of  agi- 
tation and  discussion  as  to  whether  the  government 
had  any  right  at  all  to  interfere  with  education.  This 
culminated  in  the  grant  in  1833  of  £20,000  for  the  erec- 

300 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

tion  of  schoolhouses,  the  money  to  be  spent  by  the  two 
monitorial  societies,  the  British  and  Foreign  represent- 
ing the  dissenters  and  the  National  representing  the  Es- 
tablished Church.  It  is  true  that  the  practice  of  giving 
public  funds  to  private  corporations  resulted  in  the  crea- 
tion of  vested  interests  which  afterwards  opposed  the 
establishment  of  a  public  school  system,  but  of  far 
greater  importance  was  the  acceptance  of  the  principle 
of  state  aid  for  elementary  education.  The  forces  in 
favor  of  a  state-controlled  and  state-supported  school 
system  looked  upon  the  Act  of  1833  as  only  the  first  step 
in  the  accomplishment  of  their  program  and,  after  an- 
other generation  of  agitation,  secured  the  passage  of  the 
Forster  Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870,  establishing 
the  "board"  schools.  The  Act  provided  that  whenever 
the  national  education  department  considered  the  pro- 
vision for  elementary  education  in  any  locality  to  be 
insufficient,  it  might  order  the  election  of  a  local  school 
board  which  must  maintain  adequate  accommodations. 
The  schools  thereby  established  were  to  share  the  grants 
of  the  national  government  with  the  "  voluntary " 
schools,  i.  e.,  the  schools  which  were  partly  supported  by 
voluntary  contributions,  and  which  thereafter  consisted 
chiefly  of  the  schools  of  the  National  Society,  those  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Society  coalescing  with  the  board 
schools.  Under  the  act  the  board  schools  gave  religious 
instruction,  but  not  of  any  particular  denomination ;  and 
the  "conscience  clause"  of  the  act  provided  that  any 
pupil  might  withdraw  during  the  period  of  religious 
instruction  should  his  parents  so  desire.  The  act  was 
a  compromise,  and  the  numerous  statutes  having  to  do 
with  education  that  have  been  enacted  since  then  have 
not  resulted  in  a  secular  system  of  education  like  that 
of  France  and  the  United  States;  but  as  we  shall  see 

301 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  Chapter  XVIII  they  have  resulted  in  an  increasing 
control  of  all  schools  by  the  state  authorities. 

3.     THE  PERIOD  OF  SOCIALIZED  EDUCATION 

The  Social  Motive. — It  must  not  be  supposed  that,  be- 
cause the  state  during  the  nineteenth  century  gradually 
superseded  the  church  in  the  control  of  education,  edu- 
cation quickly  became  socialized.  Traditional  aims,  tra- 
ditional subjects,  traditional  methods  of  teaching,  and 
traditional  forms  of  organization  and  administration 
maintained  their  hold.  But  the  state,  which  is  the  insti- 
tution that  represents  all  classes  and  interests  of  society 
and  that  represents  society  as  an  organized  whole,  has 
gradually  become  conscious  of  the  great  purpose  of 
education,  namely,  to  be  the  instrument  of  society  to 
attain  its  conscious  goals  and  ideals.  Ideals  change 
with  time  and  social  institutions  alter  to  conform  to 
them.  Hence  education  is  an  ever  varying  process  to 
prepare  the  individual  to  adjust  himself  to  an  ever 
changing  environment  and  for  life  under  institutions 
that  are  constantly  being  modified.  This  social  motive 
emphasized  at  first  the  political  aspect  of  social  life,  and 
later  the  economic;  and  this  difference  in  emphasis  has 
resulted  in  the  introduction  of  different  subject  matter 
and  different  practices. 

a.  The  Political  Aspect  of  the  Social  Motive. — Educa- 
tion for  citizenship,  that  is,  the  preparation  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  participate  in  the  government  of  his  country 
by  voting  intelligently  and,  if  need  be,  discharging  the 
duties  of  office  satisfactorily,  has  had  certain  profound 
effects  upon  education.  These  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

1.  The  establishment  of  universal,  free,  compulsory 

302 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

elementary  education.  Even  in  England  the  gradual  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage  to  all  males  has  made  the  upper 
classes  conscious  of  the  need  "to  educate  our  masters." 
In  the  United  States  the  belief  not  only  in  an  intelligent 
electorate,  but  in  the  right  of  that  electorate  to  educate 
its  own  leaders,  has  resulted  in  public  support  of  sec- 
ondary and  higher  education. 

2.  Centralization   of  administration  and  supervision 
at  the  expense  of  the  rights  of  localities  and  private  in- 
terests.    This  is  essential  if  compulsory  education  laws 
are  to  be  enforced  and  the  larger  aims  of  the  state  are 
not  to  be   thwarted  by  the  ignorance   and   laxity  of 
parents  or  local  communities.     This  increase  in  state 
control  has  been  accompanied  by  an  even  greater  in- 
crease in  public  support  of  education. 

3.  A  readjustment  of  emphasis  upon  subjects  of  in- 
struction.    If  universal  participation  in  political  life  is 
to  secure  social  welfare,  a  study  of  social  needs,  social 
activities,  and  social  structure  is  essential  to  preparation 
for  good  citizenship.    This  belief  has  resulted  in  an  em- 
phasis upon  history  and  civics  in  elementary  education, 
as  against  the  formal  studies  like  spelling,  grammar,  and 
the  three  R's;  and  a  tendency  in  higher  education  to 
minimize  the  literary  humanities  in  favor  of  the  social 
humanities,  such  as  politics  and  economics. 

4.  The   social   emphasis   upon   methods   of   teaching 
school  subjects.    History  is  no  longer  the  story  of  the 
doings  of  kings  and  warriors,  but  of  the  development  of 
the  life  and  thought  of  peoples  and  of  their  political 
and  social  institutions.    The  study  of  geography  consists 
no  longer  in  memorizing  lists  of  places  and  products,  but 
in  learning  the  influence  of  physiographic  conditions  on 
human  activities  and  social  development.     Civics  is  no 
longer  the  study  of  the  structure  of  government,  national 

303 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

or  local,  but  of  the  way  government  functions  in  actual 
operation. 

5.  The  great  change  in  the  status  of  the  teacher.  So- 
ciety has  come  to  look  upon  the  teacher  as  its  special 
agent  in  administering  its  most  important  function,  edu- 
cation. This  has  resulted  in  the  elevation  of  the  voca- 
tion to  the  rank  of  a  profession  and  in  the  demand  for 
a  careful  preparation  in  the  normal  schools  established 
by  society  to  train  teachers  for  the  profession.  The 
teachers  in  turn  have  responded  admirably  to  the  de- 
mands that  society  has  imposed  upon  them.  In  no  pro- 
fession do  so  many  organizations  exist  to  promote  the 
objects  of  the  profession,  and  in  no  profession  is  there 
such  literary  and  experimental  activity. 

b.  The  Economic  Aspect  of  the  Social  Motive. — The 
industrial  revolution  bringing  in  its  train  the  factory 
system  of  industry  practically  destroyed  apprenticeship 
as  a  preparation  for  industrial  life.  The  master  no  long- 
er directly  teaches  an  apprentice  in  whose  welfare  he 
has  a  personal  interest.  The  apprentice  in  fact 
usually  has  but  one  process  to  learn,  and  that  often 
requires  little  skill  or  intelligence.  Because  of  the  mo- 
bility of  labor  resulting  from  the  crowding  of  people  in 
the  cities,  there  is  no  incentive  to  masters  to  teach  ap- 
prentices, since  the  masters  may  not  reap  the  benefit  of 
the  instruction  themselves.  And  because  of  the  capital 
required  in  the  factory  system,  there  is  little  hope  that 
the  apprentice  may  some  day  become  a  master,  as  he 
might  hope  to  under  the  old  domestic  system  of  indus- 
try. Hence  if  industrial  skill  is  to  be  secured  and  devel- 
oped, an  outside  agency  having  some  direct  interest  in 
its  maintenance  must  undertake  the  task.  Social  devel- 
opments in  other  directions  indicate  the  school  as  that 
agency. 

304 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

The  chief  problem  that  confronted  the  culture  nations 
of  the  West  during  the  first  six  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  political,  viz.,  the  reconstruction  or  consoli- 
dation of  the  state.  Germany,  Italy,  and  the  United 
States  were  engaged  in  working  out  the  problem  of 
national  unity.  France  was  trying  to  get  rid  of  the 
shreds  and  tatters  of  monarchy.  Even  in  England  the 
energies  of  statesmen  were  largely  devoted  to  such  polit- 
ical problems  as  the  extension  of  the  suffrage  and  the 
disestablishment  of  the  church.  But  once  national  con- 
solidation was  secured,  it  became  evident  to  the  states- 
men of  all  nations  that  the  power,  influence,  and  even 
the  existence  of  a  nation  depend  upon  its  economic 
status.  The  growth  in  all  these  countries  of  great  cor- 
porations and  trusts  which  control  industrial  produc- 
tion on  a  large  scale  meant  keen  competition  to  supply 
international  as  well  as  domestic  markets.  Success 
would  come  to  the  nation  whose  industry  was  most  effi- 
ciently organized;  and  that  could  be  accomplished  no 
longer  by  men  with  practical  experience  only,  but  men 
deliberately  educated  with  that  object  in  view. 

Industrial  Education. — This  movement  in  favor  of  spe- 
cialized education  in  industry  came  later  in  England 
and  the  United  States  than  in  Germany  and  France. 
England  had  nearly  a  century's  start  in  industrial  de- 
velopment, and  a  considerable  control  of  foreign  markets, 
and  felt  comparatively  secure  in  her  position.  The 
United  States  had  apparently  unlimited  natural  re- 
sources and  could  afford  to  carry  on  wasteful  forms  of 
production.  But  Germany  was  a  comparative  newcomer 
in  the  industrial  field  and  had  neither  England's  plant 
nor  America's  resources,  and  she  determined  to  rely 
upon  specialization  in  all  forms  of  industrial  education, 
technical,  commercial,  and  agricultural,  for  her  national 

305 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

advancement.  No  community  has  ever  deliberately 
rationalized  its  social  life  to  such  an  extent  as  has  Ger- 
many. In  industry,  education,  civil  administration,  and 
war  it  has  made  efficiency  the  aim  and  has  organized 
the  training  of  its  citizens  with  that  object  in  view.  In 
manufactures,  not  only  technical  schools  for  the  higher 
education  of  managers  and  supervisors,  but  trade  and 
continuation  schools  for  training  workers  have  every- 
where been  established.  In  commercial  education,  Ger- 
many is  far  superior  to  any  other  country  and  provides 
elementary  and  higher  education  for  every  form  of  busi- 
ness. Agriculture  has  not  been  neglected  and  elemen- 
tary education  in  that  vocation  is  provided.  As  a  result 
of  this  highly  specialized  education  Germany  so  rapidly 
advanced  in  every  form  of  industry,  in  manufactures, 
commerce,  mining,  and  administration,  that  she  bade  fair 
to  secure  the  primacy  in  the  markets  of  Asia,  South 
America,  and  the  undeveloped  parts  of  the  earth  gen- 
erally. England,  France,  and  the  United  States  have 
waked  up  to  the  need  of  similar  specialized  instruction, 
and  in  some  forms  of  industrial  education  are  now  but 
slightly  behind  Germany.  The  industrial  education 
movement  has  resulted  in  a  change  in  the  conception  of 
training  for  citizenship.  Preparation  for  intelligent  par- 
ticipation in  political  rights  and  duties  as  the  best  way 
of  making  a  valuable  citizen  is  giving  way  to  direct 
training  in  some  form  of  industry  to  make  the  individual 
a  productive  economic  unit.  In  other  words  the  politi- 
cal aspect  of  the  social  motive  in  education  is  gradually 
yielding  in  importance  to  the  economic;  but  both  com- 
bine to  make  the  preparation  of  the  individual  for  suc- 
cessful participation  in  the  political,  industrial,  and 
social  activities  of  his  fellow  men  the  true  aim  of  educa- 
tion. 

306 


SOCIALIZING  EDUCATION 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Philanthropy,  Char- 
ity Schools,  Sunday  Schools,  Infant  Schools,  Monitorial  Edu- 
cation, Industrial  Education,  Lancaster,  Bell,  Raikes,  etc. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chaps.  XXXVIII-XLI. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.    A  History  of  Education.    Vol.  Ill,  Chap.  III. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
XIII. 

PERSON,  H.  S.    Industrial  Education. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Is  the  Gary  plan  of  employing  older  pupils  to  supervise 
the  work  of  younger  pupils  related  to  the  monitorial  system 
of  teaching? 

2.  Would  the   Sunday  school  of  today  be  more  efficient 
were    it    provided    with    paid    teachers    and    a    well-graded 
curriculum? 

3.  Should  private  philanthropy  be  relied  upon  to  provide 
free  meals,  free  eyeglasses,   free  clothing,  etc.,  for  indigent 
school  children? 

4.  How  great  an  obstacle  is  child  labor  to  the  realization 
of  the  educational  ideal? 

5.  What  are  the  chief  obstacles  to  the  successful  enforce- 
ment of  the  compulsory  education  laws  in  the  United  States  ? 

6.  Only  five  per  cent  of  the  children  in  the  United  States 
who  go  to  the  elementary  schools  pass  on  to  the  higher  schools. 
What  explanation  is  there  for  this  condition,  and  what  meas- 
ures may  be  adopted  to  increase  the  proportion? 

7.  What  are  the  grounds  upon  which  public  support  of 
higher  education  in  the  United  States  is  attacked,  and  what  are 
the  grounds  upon  which  it  may  be  defended? 

8.  What  are  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  the  old 
apprenticeship  system  of  industrial  training  over  the  present 
system? 

307 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

9.  Is  there  any  danger  that  the  general  introduction  of 
industrial   education  in   the   United   States   will   result  in   a 
caste  system  of  education? 

10.  Do  you  approve  of  compulsory  attendance  of  children 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age  in  evening  continua- 
tion schools,  as  prevails  in  Germany?    If  you  do,  what  should 
be  the  content  of  the  work  undertaken? 

11.  What  changes  in  the  education  for  citizenship  provided 
for  our  own  people  would  you  suggest  for  newly  arrived 
immigrants  ? 


CHAPTER  XVII 

PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

Outline. — The  social  motive  that  dominates  education  at 
present  has  put  an  emphasis  upon  the  content  subjects  as 
against  the^jforrofll  subjects  of  the  curriculum.  It  also  re- 
quires that  educational  sociology  be  added  to  educational  psy- 
chology in  the  preparation  of  the  teacher. 

The  social  motive  is  shown  in  the  emphasis  given  to  voca- 
tional guidance  and  vocational  education  to  enable  the  indi- 
vidual better  to  prepare  himself  for  the  work  which  by  nature 
he  is  best  fitted  to  do  and  thereby  prevent  the  social  "misfit." 

The  growth  of  public  control  of  education  has  been  accom- 
panied by  an  increasing  degree  of  secularization.  This  has 
brought  to  the  front  in  the  United  States  the  problem  of  reli- 
gious and  moral  training,  which  has  disturbed  educational 
circles  in  European  countries  for  some  time. 

The  modern  conception  of  education  demands  that  each  child 
receive  a  training  commensurate  with  his  natiy^_capacities. 
Hence  there  is  now  greatly  increase3~provision  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  feeble-minded,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  and  the 
crippled. 

Never  before  has  attention  been  so  systematically  directed 
to  improved  methods  of  teaching  and  of  school  organization. 
The  Montessori  method  and  the  Gary  system  are  but  two  of 
many  such. 

The  use  of  scientific  methods  to  discover  the  efficiency  of 
school  instruction  and  administration  has  led  to  the  making 
of  school  "surveys"  and  the  development  of  scales  for  meas- 
uring the  results  of  instruction  in  a  number  of  the  elementary 
subjects. 

309 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Educational  extension  in  the  forms  of  summer  sessions,  cor- 
respondence courses,  medical  inspection  of  school  children,  the 
"junior  high  school,"  and  the  larger  use  of  the  school  plant 
gives  evidence  of  the  degree  to  which  the  school  has  been 
socialized. 

The  reconstruction  of  educational  theory  keeps  pace  with 
reforms  in  educational  organization  and  methods.  In  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time,  Professors  Dewey,  Thorn- 
dike,  and  Jndd,  among  others,  are  having  a  profound  influence 
upon  the  thinking  teachers  and  educators. 

The  social  motive  discussed  in  the  last  chapter  is  the 
dominant  motive  in  education  at_  thg^presestv  time  and 
will  probably  continue  loTe^in  the  immediate  future. 
The  school  is  democracy's  instrument  for  realizing  its 
broad  and  humanitarian  ideal,  namely,  so  to  organize 
society  that  the  relations  existing  between  individuals 
and  classes  in  our  institutional  life  may  result  in  a 
greater  degree  of  social  justice.  Until  comparatively 
recently  it  was  the  psychological  motive  alone  that  dom- 
inated the  school ;  the  school  organized  its  materials  and 
practices  in  order  to  secure  the  development  of  the  pow- 
ers and  capacities  of  the  individual  child  that  he  might 
realize  his  own  personality.  This  was  the  natural  re- 
sult of  the  emphasis  upon  individualism  inaugurated  by 
Rousseau  and  stressed  by  the  educational  reformers  of 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  exalted  psy- 
chology in  the  preparation  of  the  teacher  and  made 
methodology  the  chief  subject  of  instruction  in  the  nor- 
mal schools.  But  it  is  now  recognized  that  personality 
can  be  realized  only  by  participating  in  the  varied  activi- 
ties of  social  life,  and  that  social  justice  can  be  secured 
only  by  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  complicated  struc- 
ture of  society.  The  social  motive,  therefore,  demands 
that  the  materials  and  practices  of  the  school  be  so 

310 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

organized  as  to  make  the  school  an  introduction  to  and 
a  preparation  for  social  life.  This  has  resulted  in  an 
emphasis  upon  the  content  subjects  of  the  curriculum, 
as"^gSnst__the_  formal  subjects.  In  the  elementary 
school,  as  already  stated,  history,  civics,  geography,  con- 
structive and  industrial  work  have  superseded  spelling, 
grammar,  and  arithmetic  in  importance.  In  the  college 
the  social  humanities,  such  as  history,  politics,  economics, 
and  sociology  are  daily  trenching  upon  the  domain  of 
the  literary  humanities.  This  has  been  due  not  only  to 
the  social  changes  that  have  resulted  from  the  industrial 
and  political  revolutions  that  took  place  during  the  past 
century,  but  also  to  the  change  in  our  way  of  thinking 
that  resulted  from  the  general  acceptance  of  the  theory 
of  evolution.  The  commonly  accepted  definition  of  edu- 
cation today  is  that  it  is  the  process  of  developing  in  the 
individual  a  power  of  adjustment  to  an  ever  changing 
social  environment.  Just  as  in  the  lower  forms  of  life 
non-adaptation  to  natural  environment  means  destruc- 
tion, so  with  man  non-adjustment  to  social  environment 
means  defeat  and  unhappiness.  Hence  the  most  impor- 
tant tendencies  in  the  educational  theory  and  the  educa- 
tional practice  of  the  present  day,  altho  some  may 
appear  chiefly  psychological  in  character,  have  for  their 
aim  the  better  adjustment  of  the  individual  to  society, 
so  as  to  secure  for  him  a  greater  degree  of  social  justice 
and  individual  happiness.  Space  will  permit  us  to  con- 
sider only  a  few  of  the  many  movements  that  engage  the 
attention  of  educators  today. 

Vocational  Education  and  Vocational  Guidance. — If 
social  evolution  is  to  be  conscious  and  society  is  deliber- 
ately to  rationalize  its  activities  and  organize  itself  to 
attain  its  ideal,  the  entrance  of  individuals  into  voca- 
tions regardless  of  fitness  or  of  preparation  must  cease. 

311 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Society  is  full  of  misfits  leading  unhappy  lives  and  con- 
tributing little  to  social  welfare  because  they  are  en- 
gage'd  in  life  activities  which  they  entered  by  mere 
chance.  The  psychological  aim  of  realizing  the  special 
powers  and  capacities  of  each  individual  and  thereby 
securing  a  greater  degree  of  personal  happiness  unites 
here  with  the  sociological  aim  of  adjusting  the  individual 
to  a  rapidly  changing  environment,  and  demands  that 
opportunity  be  given  to  every  child  to  "find  himself" 
and  to  discover  to  his  teachers  in  what  kind  of  activity 
required  by  society  he  had  best  engage.  This  could  not 
be  done  under  the  old  bookish  curriculum,  which  ap- 
pealed to  some  children  only  and  neglected  large  num- 
bers who,  being  motor-minded,  learn  and  find  self-ex- 
pression thru  their  hands.  Moreover,  the  old  curriculum 
was  organized  solely  for  children  destined  for  business 
or  the  professions  and  neglected  children  who  either 
by  preference,  fitness,  or  because  of  financial  need  would 
probably  enter  technical  work  or  trades.  The  awakening 
to  these  anomalies  has  resulted  in  the  introduction  into 
the  last  two  years  of  the  elementary  school  of  prevoca- 
tional  studies,  to  enable  pupils  and  teachers,  as  a 
result  of  trial  and  experiment,  to  discover  whether  the 
pupil  is  to  proceed  in  academic,  commercial,  or  technical 
studies,  and,  in  the  last  case,  in  which  technical  study  or 
trade.  The  vocationalizing  of  education  is  not  confined 
to  the^  elemeirUr^school^  but  jgrqceeds ^thruout  the 
entire^u_catiuffialjS5tOTii  Colleges  that  are  a  part  of 
a  university  now  generally  permit  a  student  to  elect  as 
a  senior  the  first-year  subjects  of  the  professional  school, 
and  in  some  instances  to  complete  the  purely  collegi- 
ate work  at  the  end  of  the  sophomore  year.  In  non- 
university  colleges  the  ' '  group ' '  system  of  courses  is  fre- 
quently organized  upon  a  vocational  basis. 

312 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

Moral  and  Keligious  Education. — As  we  have  seen,  the 
growth  of  public  control  of  education  has  been  accom- 
panied by  an  increasing  degree  of  secularization.  In 
France  not  only  is  religious  instruction  barred  from  the 
public  schools,  but  all  reference  to  the  supernatural  is 
forbidden.  Direct  moral  instruction  has^eplaced  relig- 
iousjnstrjiction,  buflbhere  is  a  general  feeling  of  dissatis- 
faction with  the  present  condition  of  the  problem.  In 
Germany  moral  instruction  is  associated  with  dogmatic 
religious  instruction.  Every  child  is  placed  in  one  of 
three  groups,  Protestant,  Catholic,  or  Jewish,  according 
to  the  religious  belief  of  his  parents,  and  receives  the 
religious  instruction  given  to  that  group.  The  best  opin- 
ion, however,  seems  to  be  that  the  results  are  unsatis- 
factory. In  England  the  voluntary  schools  associate 
moral  teaching  with  dogmatic  religious  instruction, 
usually  of  the  Established  Church,  the  board  schools 
with  non-sectarian  religious  teaching.  The  whole  situa- 
tion has  been  beclouded  in  England  by  the  religious 
bitterness  aroused  by  the  competition  between  the  two 
kinds  of  schools,  and  no  one  is  satisfied  with  the  results. 
In  the  United  States  religious  teaching  has  generally 
been  excluded  from  the  public  schools,  and  in  some  states 
even  the  reading  of  the  Bible  is  considered  a  religious 
influence  and  therefore  prohibited.  Few  would  admit 
that  we  are  an  irreligious  people  because  we  do  not  give 
religious  instruction  in  our  public  schools,  but  it  is  gen- 
erally conceded  that  less  reliance  is  placed  today  upon 
religious  sanctions  for  moral  standards  and  more  reli- 
ance upon  a  rational  basis  for  them.  The  need  of  an 
emphasis  upon  moral  instruction  is  particularly  press- 
ing in  a  civilization  where  impersonal  relations  prevail 
to  so  large  an  extent  as  in  ours.  Where  production  is 
on  a  large  scale  and  for  a  distant  market,  there  exists  a 

313 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

temptation  to  engage  in  questionable  business  practices ; 
where  governmental  machinery  has  become  so  compli- 
cated that  officials  are  removed  from  the  immediate  scru- 
tiny of  the  people,  there  is  a  tendency  to  laxity  in 
administration;  where  people  are  crowded  into  large 
cities,  there  is  a  disregard  for  conventions  that  public 
opinion  would  not  permit  in  smaller  communities  in 
which  everybody  knows  everybody  else.  But  despite  the 
general  recognition  of  the  importance  of  the  problem 
there  is  no  general  agreement  as  to  its  solution.  Some 
educators  believe  moral  training  should  be  left  to  the 
home  an'd  the  church,  but  the  general  opinion  holds 
that  solution  to  be  inadequate.  Some  believe  in  specific 
instruction  in  ethics,  others  in  the  moral  influence  of  a 
well-organized  school  and  well-conducted  instruction. 
That  the  American  people  are  alive  to  the  importance 
of  the  problem  is  attested  by  the  attention  it  receives 
at  educational  conventions  and  by  the  establishment  of 
associations,  such  as  the  Religious  Education  Association, 
to  study  the  problem. 

Education  for  Defective  Children. — The  modern  con- 
ception of  education  demands  that  each  child  receive 
a  training  commensurate  with  his  native  capacities.  To 
relieve  society  of  a  great  financial  burden  by  making 
defectives  self-supporting,  to  develop  in  such  children 
a  feeling  of  personal  worth,  and  to  increase  their  indi- 
vidual happiness,  specialized  forms  of  education  have 
been  organized  to  conform  to  the  needs  of  the  various 
kinds  of  defective  children.  Remarkable  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  education  of  the  deaf,  in  which  the  old 
"manual"  method  of  communicating  ideas  by  means  of 
finger  movements  has  been  superseded  by  the  "oral" 
method,  by  which  the  pupil  is  taught  to  read  the  move- 
ments of  the  lips  and  to  employ  his  vocal  organs  in 

314 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

speech.  Provision  is  generally  made  in  the  school  sys- 
tems of  large  cities  and  in  state  institutions  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Wind.  And  this  usually  includes  not  only 
intellectual  instruction  thru  raised  letters  but,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  deaf,  of  industrial  training  in  some 
direction  that  will  result  in  self-support.  Probably  the 
greatest  advance  has  been  made  in  the  education  of  the 
feeble-minded.  This  movement  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  name  of  Edouard  Seguin  (1812-1880),  who 
came  from  France  to  the  United  States  for  political  rea- 
sons in  1850  and  continued  his  experiments  in  the  educa,- 
tion  of :  mentaljief ectives.  His  methods  were  based  upon 
the  general  principle  of  appealing  to  the  mind_thru 
manj^_wiirJk_pa^cj.ilarly,  and  sensory  worTTgenerally, 
and  he  made  use  of  such  materials  as  wax,  clay,  wood, 
paper,  pictures,  and  patterns.  More  recently  there  have 
been  attempts  in  some  places  to  introduce  a  consider- 
able amount  of  formal  intellectual  instruction  in  the 
training  of  mental  defectives,  but  with  questionable 
success.  Splendid  progress  has  been  made  in  the  organi- 
zation of  tests,  like  the  Binej^Siinpn  tests,  to  discover 
the  existence  oL Jeeble-mindedness :  of  clinics  for  the 
investigation  of  proper  methods  of  teaching;  and  of 
"ungraded  classes"  in  the  elementary  schools  for  spe- 
cialized instruction.  Open-air  classes  and  schools  for 
anemic  and  tubercular  children  give  additional  evidence 
of  the  modern  desire  to  meet  the  specific  needs  of  chil- 
dren that  are  not  normal. 

Experiments  in  Educational  Method. — Maria  Montes- 
sori  (1870-). — Madame_  Montessori  began  her  edu- 
cational career  as  aTeacher  of  mental  defectives  at  Rome 
and  had  remarka bl e^guccess  in  using  and  modifying  the 
materials_-and_^ractices  of  Seguin.  It  is  questionable 
whether  her  methods  have  proved  to  be  equally  suitable 

315 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  normal  children :  to  the  present  time  she  has  applied 
it  only  to  very  young  children  and  those  of  the  first  two 
grades  of  the  elementary  school.  She  holds  with  Rous- 
seau that  " nature  is  right";  she  demands,  therefore, 
complete_jjberty  for  the  child,  and  considers  the  only 
e^u^tionj^rthjghilfi J&J)e  "auto-education. ' ?  In  her 
school  the  general  practice  is  to  place  the  materials  for 
education  about  the  room.  The  child  chooses  whatever 
occupation  interests  him  and  continues  to  play  or  work 
at  it  without  interference,  unless  he  disturbs  the  other 
children  in  the  room.  This  practice  does  give  each  pupil 
liberty  to  work  independently  on  such  material  as  he 
chooses,  but  the  material  is  limited  to  a  fixed  number  of 
things  that  must  be  handled  in  a  certain  way.  It  is  a 
question  whether  her  "didactic"  apparatus,  devised  to 
train  the  senses  and  develop  an  ability  to  engage  in  prac- 
tical activities,  such  as  dressing  oneself,  is  not  more 
suited  to  teaching  mental  defectives  than  normal  chil- 
dren. The  games  and  occupations  of  Froebel,  so  valu- 
able for  the  development  of  the  imagination,  feelings, 
and  sense  of  social  cooperation,  are  absent.  Children  do 
not  work  together  at  common  pursuits ;  and  the  teacher, 
unlike  the  kindergartner,  is  anobserver  of  the  children 's 
_han  a  partjcJ£ajLt_in__them.  Madame 
[ontessori  has  had  considerable  success  in  working  out 
methods  to  teach  the  three  R  's  and  particularly  penman- 
ship, in  which  the  children  show  great  speed  and  skill. 
Her  method  in  reading,  however,  is  applicable  only  to  a 
phonetic  language  like  Italian,  and  her  method  in  arith- 
metic makes  little  advance  upon  the  best  modern  prac- 
tices. Tho  she  is  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  Rousseau 
and  tho  she  has  borrowed  ideas  from  Pestalozzi  and 
Froebel,  her  work  lacks,  ^he  sop.iftL-nLQtiirfi  f^at 
the  education  of  today. 

316 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

The  Gary  System. — Superintendent  William  Wirt  of 
Gary,  Indiana,  has  worked  out  during  Tfte^past  decade  a 
w^k-^tudy-play  system  of  schools  that  has  attracted  the 
general  attention  of  educators  in  the  United  States.  In 
the  ordinary  city  school  all  the  children  do  the  same 
thing  at  the  same  time.  In  the  first  period  of  the  morn- 
ing all  the  children  meet  in  the  auditorium  for  general 
exercises  and  at  the  close  of  the  period  they  pass  to 
their  classrooms  and  the  auditorium  remains  practically 
unused  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  Each  child  in  a  class- 
room has  a  seat  reserved  for  him,  so  that  when  the  chil- 
dren of  a  class  are  in  the  auditorium  or  in  the  play- 
ground, the  classroom  is  unused,  and  vice  versa.  In 
Gary  the  school  is  provided  with  shops,  laboratories, 
playgrounds,  gymnasiums,  swimming  pools,  libraries, 
gardens,  and  auditoriums,  in  addition  to  the  regular 
classrooms.  All  these  activities  are  conducted  at  the 
same  time,  so  that  in  any  period,  while  some  children 
are  studying  or  reciting  the  ordinary  school  subjects  in 
classrooms,  others  are  working  in  the  shops  and  labora- 
tories, others  are  playing  in  the  gymnasium  or  play- 
grounds, and  still  others  are  engaged  in  general  exer- 
cises in  the  auditorium.  This  plan  permits  of  an  en- 
riched and  more  varied  curriculum  for  the  children  and 
a  longer jscEool  day,  tho  more  time  need  not  be  de- 
votecTto'the  formal  school  subjects.  Moreover,  it  admits 
of  double  the  number  of  pupils  being  housed  in  one 
school  and  has  for  that  reason  been  seized  upon  as  a 
means  of  solving  the  part-time  problem  which  exists 
in  most  of  the  large  cities,  and  as  a  means  of  saving 
expense.  The  plan  has  not  yet  been  in  operation  long 
enough  to  enable  us  to  judge  whether  the  many  adminis- 
trative and  pedagogic  obstacles  to  its  successful  working 
in  congested  districts  inhabited  by  fluctuating  popula- 

317 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

tions  will  permit  the  realization  of  the  hopes  of  its 
adherents.  But  this  remarkable  organization  is  another 
illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  social  motive  ani- 
mates school  policy  today  in  its  effort  to  meet  the  press- 
ing needs  of  society.  The  Gary  plan  is  only  the  most 
prominent  of  a  number  which  are  being  tried  out  in 
various  places  in  the  United  States  but  which  lack  of 
space  forbids  our  discussing. 

Statistical  Methods  and  Scientific  Surveys, — Until  a 
decade  ago  practically  no  attempt  had  been  made  to 
measure  the  results  of  school  instruction  or  school  ad- 
ministration by  the  precise,  objective,  scientific  methods 
that  prevail  in  the  natural  sciences.  Now  quantitative 
measurements  are  being  applied  with  success  to  many 
school  activities.  The  use  of  sjatisjtic^inj^hods  in  gath- 
ering information  has  resulted  in,  supplanting  guesswork 
by  intelligent  prevision  .in  administrative^  matters. 
Thru  the  careful  collection  and  study  of  statistics  much 
is  being  learned  about  such  school  phenomena  as  re- 
tardation, elimination,  and  fatigue.  Educational  "  sur- 
veys, ' '  based  upon  scientific  methods  to  discover  the  effi- 
ciency of  school  systems,  have  been  made  in  many  cities 
and  are  likely  to  become  part  of  the  school  machinery 
of  both  city  and  state.  Professor. JEdsmrd  L.  Thorndike, 
of  Columbia  University,  has  been  a  pioneer  in  the  appli- 
cation o?^ta/tistical  methods  to  education  and  has  not 
only  maintained,  upon  psychological  grounds,  the  possi- 
bility of  devising  scales  for  the  measurement  of  the  re- 
sults of  instruction,  but  has  actually  devised  such  for 
handwriting,  arithmetic,  and  composition.  Other  inves- 
tigators have  organized  similar  scales  in  those  subjects, 
and  also  for  measuring  achievement  in  spelling  and 
drawing.  In  a  great  variety  of  ways  it  is  being  made  evi- 
dent that  curricula,  methods  of  teaching,  and  forms  of 

318 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

school  organization  and  administration  must  justify 
themselves  today  upon  rational  grounds  as  socially  effi- 
cient and  not  upon  mere  usage  and  tradition. 

Educational  Extension. — The  social  motive  controlling 
education  is  evident  in  the  great  variety  of  methods 
adopted  to  reach  all  the  people  and  serve  their  needs. 
Practically  every  large  university  has  a  summer  session ; 
these,  grown  to  large  proportions  during  the  past  decade, 
enable  many  people  to  satisf}-  their  educational  needs  in 
the  only  way  possible  for  them.  Many  universities  have 
also  university  extension  courses,  some  have  correspond- 
ence courses,  and  the  state  universities  in  many  instances 
have  organized  courses  to  meet  the  seasonal  needs  of 
people  engaged  in  farming  and  other  occupations.  In 
secondary  education  we  have  such  movements  as  the 
"junior  high  school/'  to  combine  the  last  two  years  of 
the  elementary  school  with  the  first  two  of  the  high 
school,  in  order  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  excessive  elim- 
ination at  the  close  of  the  elementary  school  period,  as 
well  as  to  give  better  opportunity  for  vocational  guid- 
ance and  vocational  education.  Medical  inspection  of 
pupils  and  better  sanitary  regulations  in  school  build- 
ings show  the  influence  of  the  school  hygiene  movement. 
Finally,  to  close  with  but  one  other  illustration,  the 
movement  in  favor  of  a  greater  use  of  the  school  plant 
has  had  remarkable  success  in  making  the  school  a  com- 
munity and  social  center,  in  which  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood  may  not  only  receive  instruction  thru 
public  lectures  and  political  debates,  but  may  secure 
healthful  recreation  in  the  form  of  dances,  quiet  games, 
and  moving-picture  entertainments.  The  school  has 
been  socialized. 

Reconstructing  Educational  Theory. — John  Dewey 
(1859-). — The  greatest  advances  in  the  development  "of 

319 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

educational  theory  since  the  twentieth  century  opened 
have  been  made  in  the  United  States,  and  the  leader  in 
its  reconstruction  is  Professor  John_  Dewey  of  Columbia 
University.  Professor  Dewey  is  a  distinguished  scholar 
in  the  fields  of  philosophy  and  general  psychology,  but 
has  made  his  most  important  contributions  in  connection 
with  the  social  aspect  of  psychology.  He  organized  and 
administered  an  experimental  elementary  school  at  the 
University  of  Chicago  from  1896  to  1903,  and  his  educa- 
tional theory  is  to  a  great  extent  the  result  of  his  appli- 
cation to  that  school  of  the  principles  he  worked  out 
in  social  psychology.  His  fundamental  premise  is  that 
* '  the  school  cannot^  be  a  ^preparation  _for^ Jife  except  as 
it  reproduces  the  typical  conditions  of  sociaHif e. ' '  The 
typical  conditions  of  social  life  are  determined  by  the 
industrial  activities  in  which  people  engage;  hence  in- 
dustrial activities  should  have  an  important  place  in 
the  school  curriculum.  Weaving,  sewing,  cooking,  and 
shopwork  served  in  his  school  as  the  introduction  to 
other  industrial  activities,  all  of  which  received  a  his- 
torical study.  In  this  way  the  social  participation  pro- 
vided by  Froebel's  kindergarten  was  supplied,  and  mo- 
tor expression,  which  was  the  other  chief  characteristic 
of  the  kindergarten,  received  a  freer  development  in 
Dewey '&  school,  as  his  industrial  activities  did  not  be- 
come so  formal  and  stereotyped  as  Froebel's  "occupa- 
tions. '  '  Instructionjn^the  formal  studies,  such  as  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic,  were  connected  with  the 
children ?sjndustrial  activities,  so  thaTthese  subjects  do 
not  appear  unconnected  with  everyday  experience.  A 
fine  training  in  oral  expression  was  given,  because  the  in- 
dustrial activities  provided  the  children  with  experiences 
that  they  wanted  to  talk  about  and  also  an  audience  that 
wanted  to  hear  them.  The  gospel  of  training  thru 

320 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

industrial  occupations  by  making  them  the  basis  of  a- 
study  of  social  relations  is  attractively  set  forth  by  Pro- 
fessor Dewey  in  his  little  book  "School  and  Society. " 
His  *  *  SchqpJ^_of__To-morrow, M  which  has  recently  ap- 
peared, and  which  describes  the  most  important  experi- 
ments in  elementary  education  taking  place  in  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time,  emphasizes  the  prin- 
ciple of  preparation^  jor^  social  Jiving^  as  the  aim  of  the 
scEool  and  the  need  of  reconstruction  in  school  organiza- 
tion, instruction,  and  curricula  to  realize  that  aim. 

Professor  Dewey  has  made  also  an  important  contri- 
bution to  educational  method  in  his  books  "§ow__W<L 
Think"  and  "Interest  jand  Effort^  in  Education/' 
namely,  the  "problem~me£h~o3"  of  teaching,  oFwhich 
one  well-known  educator  says,  "Its  active  accep- 
tance by  teachers  would  bring  about  a  complete  trans- 
formation of  classroom  method."  From  the  time  of 
Aristotle  educators  have  thought  of  induction  and  de- 
duction as  including  the  entire  intellectual  process,  at 
least  so  far  as  teachers  need  give  it  attention.  Professor 
Dewey  has  pointed  out  that  these  are  the  thought- 
processes  only  of  one  who  has  already  thru  experi- 
ence mastered  the  subject  matter  of  his  field,  and  that 
by  far  the  greater  part  of  our  intellectual  process  is 
antecedent  to  this  stage.  We  must,  therefore,  study  these 
antecedent  processes  by  which  the  mind  of  the  individ- 
ual comes  into  relation  with  the  objective  world,  and 
find  in  them  the  methods  for  the  greater  part  of  our 
teaching.  Professor  Dewey  finds  the  characteristic 
feature  of  them  to  be  "interest,"  by  whichjie  means  a 
more^oxJLess^con^cious  and  partly  instinctive  desire  pf 
the  individual  to  attain  some  end.  But  interest  is  to  be 
considered  only  a  stimulus  to  the  higher  intellectual 
processes,  into  harmony  with  whose  workings  the  teacher 

321 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

must  bring  his  schoolwork.  He  especially  cautions  us 
that  the  reaction  against  the  attempt  of  centuries  to 
apply  Aristotelian  methods  to  inexperienced  minds,  if 
not  guided  by  such  an  understanding,  will  result  in 
a  conception  of  interest  as  mere  temporary  attention 
or  momentary  stimulation,  and  thus  in  failure  to  intro- 
duce any  intellectual  elements  in  education. 

Contemporary  educational  theory  also  owes  much  to 
the  advocates  of  the  "new  psychology"  who  have  not, 
perhaps,  been  so  much  influenced  by  the  social  motive  as 
has  Professor  Dewey.  Probably  no  recent  book  has 
had  more  influence  upon  the  thinking  of  teachers  and 
educators  than  the  ' '  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology ' ' 
of  the  late  Willia^_James7IIB42-_191Q ' )  His  emphasis 
upon  theTTnoTbgical  point  of  view  in  psychology — that 
man  is  primarily  a  behaving  organism — had  as  an  edu- 
cational corollary  the  empHasis^upon  Jearning  thru 
doing,  already  introducedTliito  education  by  Froebel. 
BuF  one  inference  made  by  many  teachers  from  the  em- 
phasis on  behavior  as  the  fundamental  factor  in  edu- 
cation has  drawn  forth  a  warning  from  such  distin- 
guished psychologists  as  Professor  E.  L.  Thorndike  of 
Columbia,  and  Professor  C.  H.  Judd  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago.  The  inference  referred  to  is  that 
motor-expression  in  the  more  direct  forms  which  find 
fulfillment  in  constructive  work,  dramatization,  and 
manual  training  should  have  primacy  in  the  curriculum. 
These  psychologists  point  out  that  wjbatevjg_thougfat 
man  has  ever  had  he  has  expressed,  in  speech;  arid  that 
no_Jorm  of  motor-expressioii^jcom^ 
wiffi~speech.  Thinking  and  speaking  differentiate  man 
from  Ihe  lower  animals  and  determine  the  way  in  which 
he  adjusts  himself  to  his  environment.  Developing  the 
thought  processes  which  translate  sensory  stimuli  into 

322 


PKESEXT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

motor  responses  and  training  in  language  expression 
must  not  be  subordinated,  therefore,  to  the  manual  ac- 
tivities. All  have  their  place  in  a  socialized  curriculum 
which  aims  at  preparing  the  individual  to  engage  in  in- 
dustrial, political,  and  social  activities  with  his  fellow 
men. 

Another  psychologist  who  has  had  a  profound  influ- 
ence upon  education  in  the  United  States  is  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  president  of  Clarke  University.  Dr.  Hall's 

ymr   L_|      *  *  ...        i       i"     »»^_  y -    -—       —  " 

' '  A^olesceace^! '  pubiisHe3Tln"T904,  at  once  assumed  a 
place  of  authority  in  the  literature  devoted  to  the  edu- 
cation of  youth  and  not  only  aroused  interest  in  the 
problems  of  secondary  education  but  stimulated  ex- 
perimentation in  their  solution. 

The  Eternal  Problem:  Harmonizing  the  Individual  and 
Society. — In  the  introduction  to  this  book  the  statement 
was  made  that  the  great  problem  before  every  society, 
at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  whether  that  society  be 
in  a  primitive  or  in  an  advanced  stage  of  development, 
is  how  to  organize  itself  so  that  the  individual  shall  have 
the  freedom  necessary  to  realize  his  own  personality 
thru  attaining  his  own  ends  and  yet  not  endanger 
the  stability  and  existence  of  society  itself.  Society  is 
organized  on  institutions,  and  education  must  prepare 
the  individual  for  life  under  institutions.  The  danger 
always  exists,  however,  that  the  institution  may  be  con- 
sidered as  an  end  in  itself,  instead  of  as  a  means  for  the 
advancement  of  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  indi- 
vidual. We  have  seen  how  during  the  Middle  Ages  the 
individual  was  submerged  in  institutional  control  and 
had  no  rights  apart  from  membership  in  some  institu- 
tion, such  as  church,  gild,  castle,  or  university.  Then 
came  the  Renaissance  with  its  demand  for  the  right  of 
the  individual  to  control  his  own  destinies  untrammeled 

323 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

by  tradition  and  authority.  The  unwillingness  of  insti- 
tutions to  modify  themselves  either  in  response  to  this 
demand  or  to  changed  social  conditions  resulted  in  a 
period  of  conflict,  which  terminated  only  in  the  French 
Revolution  with  individualism  triumphant.  For  almost  a 
century  afterward,  in  political  and  educational  thought, 
progress  was  considered  only  in  terms  of  the  individual. 
Costly  experience  and  also  the  truer  conception  of  prog- 
ress resulting  from  the  general  acceptance  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution  have  combined  to  harmonize  the  con- 
flicting views.  It  is  true  that  the  twentieth  century  has 
so  far  emphasized  social  control,  but  only  that  thereby 
every  individual  may  better  develop  his  native  powers 
and  capacities  and  attain  to  his  greatest  usefulness  and 
happiness. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  Vocational  Guid- 
ance and  Vocational  Education,  Moral  and  Religious  Educa- 
tion, Education  for  Defectives,  Educational  Extension,  Edu- 
cational Theory,  etc. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.     The  Educational  Ideal. 

DEWEY,  JOHN  AND  EVELYN.    Schools  of  To-morrow. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  Ill,  Chaps. 
XI-XII. 

MONTESSORI,  MARIA.     The  Montessori  Method. 

MONROE,  P.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Chap. 
XIV. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Educa- 
tion. Chap.  XIX. 

QUESTIONS,  COMPARISONS,  AND  TOPICS  FOR 
FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Criticize  the  following  as  the  aim  of  education:  to  give 
culture,  to  discipline  the  mind,  to  enable  one  to  earn  a  living. 

324 


PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 

2.  What  changes  can  you  mention  that  must  be  made  in 
school  organization  and  instruction  to  permit  of  an  efficient  use 
of  vocational  guidance? 

3.  The  Gary  plan  permits  children  to  repair  to  the  neigh- 
boring church  for  a  period  of  religious  and  moral  instruc- 
tion.   Do  you  approve  of  that  system?    If  not,  what  do  you 
suggest  in  its  stead  to  secure  religious  or  moral  instruction  ? 

4.  Do  the  benefits  of  permitting  mentally  deficient  chil- 
dren to  attend  school  with  normal  children  outweigh  the  dis- 
advantages, or  should  all  the  feeble-minded  be  placed  in  spe- 
cial institutions? 

5.  Compare  the  conception  of  "liberty"  as  illustrated  in 
the  Montessori  system  with  that  in  the  Froebel  system.    How 
could  the  two  systems  be  united  to  secure  a  better  training 
in  early  childhood? 

6.  What  danger  exists  in  the  introduction  of  "efficiency" 
methods  in  school  instruction  and  administration? 

7.  What  changes  are  necessary  to  make  the  rural  school 
a  neighborhood  center  for  the  general  education  and  recreation 
of  the  people? 

8.  In  the  early  nineteenth  century  the  minister  was  the  most 
influential  factor  in  the  village  and  moral  community.     How 
can  the  teficher  be  made  such  today? 

9.  Show  in  what  respects  John  Dewey  has  been  influenced 
by  Rousseau. 

10.  Does  the  education  of  today  emphasize  service  to  so- 
ciety as  much  as  it  emphasizes  the  rights  of  the  individual  ? 

11.  What  value  do  athletics  possess  as  a  means  of  moral 
education?    What  do  the  social  activities  and  social  organiza- 
tions of  the  school? 


PART  V 
NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OP 
EDUCATION 

Outline.— A.  The  United  States.  Education  in  the  United 
States  has  passed  thru  four  periods:  (1)  The  period  of 
colonial  education  in  which  religion  was  the  dominant  motive. 
The  selective  type  of  education  prevailed  in  the  southern 
colonies ;  the  parochial  school  type  in  the  middle  colonies ;  and 
the  town  school  type  in  New  England.  (2)  The  transition 
period  from  the  Revolution  to  the  public  school  revival.  In 
this  period  there  existed  definite  obstacles  to  the  development 
of  public  education  and  important  movements  stimulating  it. 
(3)  The  period  of  the  public  school  revival  (1837-1876),  in 
which,  largely  as  the  result  of  the  work  of  such  leaders  as 
Horace  Mann  and  Henry  Barnarcl,  there  was  developed  in  all 
states  a  public  educational  system  of  varying  extent  and 
strength.  (4)  The  period  of  educational  expansion.  This 
period  is  characterized  by  an  increasing  centralization  of  state 
control  and  a  great  extension  of  educational  facilities. 

B.  Germany.  Frederick  the  Great  laid  the  real  founda- 
tion for  the  present  Prussian  system  of  education  in  his  Gen- 
eral School  Regulations  of  1763.  During  the  reign  of  his 
successor,  the  General  Code  of  Prussian  law  was  adopted  in 
1794,  which  proclaimed  unequivocally  the  supremacy  of  the 
state  in  education.  The  next  great  step  in  advance  was  taken 
after  the  battle  of  Jena  in  1806,  when  reforms  affecting  every 
branch  of  education  were  adopted  and  the  University  of  Ber- 
lin was  founded.  Tho  the  years  1818-1860  formed  a  period 
of  reaction  politically,  the  schools  were  finally  separated  from 
Church  control  and  full  state  control  was  established.  The 

329 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

period  since  1871  has  been  one  of  intense  nationalism  in  which 
the  school  has  become  the  chief  agency  of  the  state  to  work 
out  its  views  of  political  and  economic  life.  Organization  of 
the  German  system. 

C.  France.     Tho    the    Revolutionary    Convention    gave    a 
great  deal  of  attention  to  the  establishment  of  a  national  and 
lay  system   of   education,   little   was   really   accomplished   in 
the  revolutionary  period  except  the  reorganization  of  secondary 
and  higher  education  by  Napoleon  in  1802-1806.     Elementary 
education  fell  under  the  control  of  the  church  after  the  Revo- 
lution in  1815  and  remained  so  until  the  passage  of  Guizot's 
Law  in  1833.     That  was  the  real  foundation  of  the  French 
system  of  elementary  education.     The  Second  Empire,  how- 
ever, was  favorable  to  religious  control  of  elementary  schools, 
with  the  result  that  the  Third  Republic  had  not  only  to  recover 
lost  ground,  but  was  compelled  to  enter  into  a  conflict  with 
the  Church  for  the  control  of  education,  which  finally  resulted 
in  its  complete  secularization  in  1904.     France  has  today  the 
most   completely   centralized   system    of   state-controlled   and 
state-supported  schools  in  western   Europe.     Organization  of 
the  French  system  of  education. 

D.  England.     England  relied  upon  philanthropy  to  do  the 
work  of  the  state  in  education  longer  than  any  of  the  other 
great  nations  of  the  West.     The  first  step  towards  state  sup- 
port was  taken  in  1833,  when  a  parliamentary  grant  of  money 
was  made  to  the  schools  of  the  two  great  religious  educational 
societies.     From  that  time  until  1870  those  two  societies  re- 
mained the  media  for  the  distribution  of  state  grants.     In 
that  year,  a  system  of  "board"  schools  was  established  to  be 
organized,  supported,  and  controlled  by  the  state,  which,  how- 
ever, continued  its  grants  to  the  religious  "voluntary"  schools. 
Because  of  the  remarkable  growth  of  the  board  schools,  the 
conservative   party  in   1902   secured   the   passage   of  an   act 
favoring  the  voluntary  schools  but  placing  all  schools  under 
<the  supervision  of  public  officials,  and  education  in  England 
is  now  organized  under  the  law  of  1902.     Description  of  its 
organization. 

330 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

THE   UNITED    STATES 

In  the  case  of  the  United  States  we  shall  have  to  go 
back  farther  in  time  than  with  the  European  countries, 
especially  because  a  knowledge  of  the  development  of 
education  in  the  United  States  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury cannot  be  obtained  without  a  previous  understand- 
ing of  the  peculiar  social  conditions  that  obtained  dur- 
ing the  colonial  period. 


/.    Colonial  Education 

The  Predominance  of  the  Religious  Motive. — We  saw 
in  Chapter  IX  that  the  Reformation  principle,  that  the 
individual  should  be  guided  in  life  by  the  Bible,  had  as 
an  educational  corollary  that  he  should  at  least  be 
taught  to  read  it.  We  saw  also  that  where  the  Reforma- 
tion was  chiefly  a  religious  movement  and  was  carried 
to  logical  conclusions,  the  effect  upon  the  development 
of  universal  education  was  direct;  but  that  where  the 
Reformation  was  political  and  ecclesiastical  rather  than 
religious,  and  halting  rather  than  thoro,  the  atti- 
tude towards  education  was  one  of  comparative  indif- 
ference and  neglect.  The  former  condition  was  true 
wherever  Calvinism  prevailed,  as  in  the  Netherlands, 
Scotland,  and  among  the  Puritans  in  England ;  the  lat- 
ter condition  was  true  in  England  generally,  where  the 
Anglican  church  was  in  the  nature  of  a  compromise. 
The  United  States  was  settled  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, when  religious  antagonisms  were  most  bitter;  and 
it  was  settled  largely  by  groups  of  people  who  fled  from 
Europe  because  of  religious  persecution  and  because  of 
their  desire  to  worship  in  their  own  peculiar  way.  The 
kind  of  educational  system  that  would  be  established  in 

331 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

any  part  of  the  new  land  would  be  determined  chiefly 
by  the  kind  of  religious  opinions  held  by  the  people  set- 
tling there.  And,  as  Professor  Graves  has  pointed  out, 
we  do  find  three  fairly  distinct  types  of  education  de- 
veloping in  the  colonies. 

a.  The  Selective  Type  prevailed  in  the  southern  col- 
onies generally,  of  which  Virginia  is  fairly  typical.  In 
none  of  the  colonies  were  the  social  conditions  of  the 
mother  country  so  reproduced  as  in  Virginia,  where  dis- 
tinctions of  classes  developed  and  the  Anglican  Church 
was  established.  The  gentry  employed  tutors  for  their 
own  children  or  sent  them  to  England  for  instruction. 
They  not  only  were  not  interested  in  the  education  of 
the  masses,  who  were  in  many  instances  indentured  ser- 
vants and  convicts,  but  they  believed  solely  in  the  sys- 
tem of  apprenticeship  as  preparation  for  the  trades 
which  were  to  be  the  life  work  of  these  lower  classes. 
Here  and  there  secondary  schools  were  established  by 
individuals  or  voluntary  associations,  but  neither  the 
Church  nor  the  colonial  government  took  a  direct  interest 
in  the  organization  of  any  system  of  education.  In  1692 
the  College  of  William  and  Mary  was  founded,  with  a 
splendid  endowment  and  equipment  for  those  days ;  and 
during  the  eighteenth  century  it  rendered  admirable 
service  to  the  colony  in  the  equipment  of  leaders  in  all 
the  higher  walks  of  life.  But  down  to  the  Revolution 
the  character  that  was  impressed  upon  education  in  Vir- 
ginia in  the  seventeenth  century  remained,  i.  e.,  good 
provision  for  higher  education,  fair  provision  for  sec- 
ondary instruction  thru  the  voluntary  and  haphaz- 
ard establishment  of  Latin  schools,  and  little  provision 
for  elementary  training  beyond  the  system  of  appren- 
ticeship. A  few  elementary  schools  were  established, 
but  where  they  were  for  the  Common  people  they  were 

332 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OP  EDUCATION 

called  "poor  schools."  And  what  is  true  of  Virginia  is 
true  generally  of  the  other  southern  colonies.  Wherever 
there  was  any  attempt  to  establish  public  schools,  it  was 
associated  with  settlements  of  Scotch-Irish  Presbyteri- 
ans or  other  dissenters,  as  in  North  Carolina. 

b.  The  Parochial  School  Type  prevailed  in  the  middle 
colonies.  These  colonies  were  settled  chiefly  by  various 
Calvinistic  sects,  such  as  the  Dutch  Eeformed  in  New 
Yoj*k^and  the  Presbyterians  in  New  Jersey,  or  by  other 
sects  of  the  advanced  Protestant  type,  as  the  Quakers 
and  Mennonites  of  Pennsylvania.  They  all  believed  in 
the  need  of  everyone  reading  the  Bible,  and  all,  there- 
fore, favored  elementary  education.  But  as  each  sect 
denied  the  value  of  the  tenets  of  the  others  to  effect 
salvation,  this  elementary  education  took  the  form  of 
parish  schools  attached  to  the  churches.  The  Dutch 
transplanted  to  New  Netherlands  the  excellent  system  of 
parochial  schools  that  prevailed  at  home,  and  some  at- 
tention was  given  also  to  secondary  education ;  but  after 
the  English  occupation  in  1674  the  same  haphazard 
attitude  towards  education  was  adopted  that  prevailed 
in  the  southern  colonies.  Pennsylvania  retained  its  pa- 
rochial system  thruout  the  colonial  period,  but  sec- 
tarian jealousy  prevented  anything  like  uniformity  de- 
veloping. The  Quakers,  Moravians,  and  Presbyterians 
also  maintained  "grammar"  schools  for  secondary  edu- 
cation in  that  colony.  In  New  Jersey  and  Delaware, 
tho  parochial  schools  existed,  they  were  established 
in  a  still  more  haphazard  manner  than  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.  With  the  founding  of  King's  College 
(now  Columbia  University),  the  Academy  of  Pennsyl- 
vania (now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania),  and  Prince- 
ton, the  middle  colonies  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
were  far  better  provided  with  elementary,  secondary, 

333 


THE  HISTOEY  OP  EDUCATION 

and  higher  education  than  were  the  southern  colonies, 
c.  The  Town  School  prevailed  in  New  England ;  those 
of  Massachusetts  may  be  taken  as  typical.  The  people 
who  founded  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  were  a  ho- 
mogeneous group.  There  was  very  little  distinction  of 
classes  among  them  as  prevailed  in  the  southern  col- 
onies, and  no  distinction  of  sects  as  there  was  in 
the  middle  colonies.  They  were  mostly  of  the  middle 
class  socially,  were  generally  well-educated  and  had  uni- 
versity graduates  for  leaders,  were  thoro  believers  in 
democratic  government,  and  were  strong  upholders  of 
the  Calvinistic-Genevan  principle  of  the  "church-state" 
form  of  government.  Holding  firmly  to  the  necessity  of 
everyone's  being  able  to  read  the  Bible,  the  General 
Court,  i.  e.,  the  legislature,  passed  the  famous  Law  of 
1647,  by  which  "the  Puritan  government  of  Massachu- 
setts rendered  probably  its  greatest  service  to  the  fu- 
ture. ' '  Schools  had  been  founded  in  some  of  the  towns 
previous  to  1647,  but  by  voluntary  efforts.  The  Law  of 
1647  provided  that  every  town  that  contained  fifty  fami- 
lies should  maintain  an  elementary  school  whose  teacher 
should  be  paid  partly  from  tuition  fees  and  partly  from 
taxation.  If  a  town  had  one  hundred  families  it  must 
maintain  in  addition  a  "grammar"  school  to  fit  the1 
youth  for  the  university.  A  town  that  neglected  to  con- 
form to  the  provisions  of  the  law  was  to  be  fined  £5 — at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  fine  was  in- 
creased to  £20.  The  religious  motive  that  prompted  the 
law  is  stated  in  the  preamble,  namely,  to  thwart  the 
"one  chief  project  of  that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to  keep 
men  from  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures."  The  Church 
imposed  the  law  thru  its  instrument,  the  state,  but  the 
law  continued  to  be  the  ideal  of  the  state  after  the  school 
had  been  completely  secularized.  The  Massachusetts 

334 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

type  of  school  was  adopted  in  all  the  other  New  Eng- 
land colonies  except  Rhode  Island,  where  the  fanatical 
devotion  to  freedom  of  thought  and  of  speech  resulted 
in  a  random  growth  of  schools  such  as  characterized  the 
southern  colonies. 

Unfortunately  subsequent  developments  resulted  in 
the  decline  of  education  in  New  England  and  the  de- 
generation of  the  town  school:  (1)  With  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Commonwealth  in  England  migration  of 
Puritans  to  New  England  practically  ceased ;  and  when 
the  fine  university  scholars  who  had  been  the  early  lead- 
ers died  off,  there  were  no  such  lovers  of  learning  to 
replace  them.  (2)  There  was  a  growth  of  liberalism  both 
in  the  colonies  and  in  the  mother  country,  as  evidenced, 
for  instance,  in  the  Toleration  Act  passed  by  Parliament 
in  1690.  Before  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  unity  of  religious  belief  that  had  characterized 
Massachusetts  and  New  England  generally  gave  way  to 
divergence  of  belief  and  toleration  of  other  sects.  With 
the  decline  of  the  intense  religious  spirit  there  was  a 
corresponding  decline  in  the  education  that  had  been  in- 
spired by  it.  (3)  The  chief  causes  of  the  decline  of 
the  town  school  were  the  spread  of  population  into  un- 
settled regions  and  the  attainment  of  local  government 
by  districts  within  the  town.  The  houses  of  the  early 
settlers  were  clustered  around  the  meetinghouse,  partly 
for  better  protection  against  Indians  and  partly  because 
of  religious  devotion.  As  these  two  incentives  grad- 
ually passed  away,  settlers  moved  into  parts  of  the  town 
from  which  the  town  school  was  inaccessible,  or  they 
moved  into  entirely  new  regions  that  had  no  town 
center.  The  new  hamlets  that  then  arose  demanded 
equality  of  opportunity  to  attend  school  for  their  chil- 
dren. This  resulted  at  first  in  the  "moving"  school,  i.  e., 

335 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  entire  town  supported  a  teacher,  but  instead  of  be- 
ing maintained  permanently  in  one  place  to  which  all 
children  went,  he  moved  to  several  places  for  a  few 
months  each.  The  last  step  in  the  decline  of  the  public 
school  in  New  England  took  place  when  each  district 
within  the  town  established  its  " district"  school.  The 
"moving"  school  had  at  least  a  good  teacher  with  fair 
pay,  who  taught  thruout  the  year ;  but  the  district  school 
could  afford  only  a  poor  teacher,  who  "kept"  school  in 
each  district  a  few  months  in  the  year.  Hence  the  Revo- 
lution found  New  England  provided  with  far  poorer 
facilities  for  elementary  education  than  had  existed 
a  century  before.  There  had  also  been  a  gradual  de- 
cline in  the  "grammar"  school,  which  furnished  sec- 
ondary instruction ;  but  Harvard,  Yale,  Dartmouth,  and 
Brown  supplied  the  higher  education  needed  by  the 
members  of  the  learned  professions. 

77.    The  Transition  Period.    From  the  Revolution  to  the 
Public  School  Revival. 

From  a  material  standpoint  the  Revolution  had  an  evil 
effect  upon  the  growth  of  public  education  in  the  United 
States;  from  a  spiritual  standpoint  it  had  a  beneficent 
effect.  The  war  bankrupted  not  only  the  central  govern- 
ment but  many  of  the  state  governments.  The  British 
troops  ravaged  the  country  from  New  England  to  Geor- 
gia, and  the  British  fleet  destroyed  colonial  commerce. 
Industry  was  at  a  standstill,  and  many  people  were  re- 
duced to  poverty.  War  is  essentially  destructive  and 
usually  diverts  attention  from  constructive  human  ac- 
tivities like  education,  and  in  hard  times  education  is 
generally  one  of  the  human  activities  that  is  first  to 
suffer.  But  the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality,  for 

336 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

which  the  war  was  fought,  combined  with  the  growth 
of  a  new  political  and  social  order  to  develop 
a  belief  in  the  need  of  universal  education  to  achieve 
those  principles  and  that  order.  This  movement  in 
favor  of  public  education  had  a  number  of  difficult 
obstacles  to  overcome  but  was  hastened  by  a  number 
of  subsidiary  movements.  We  shall  first  consider  the 
obstacles. 

A.  Obstacles  to  the  Development  of  Public  Education. 
— 1.  The  Practice  of  Granting  Public  Moneys  to  Private 
Schools. — Tho  this  practice  was  general,  its  effect  is  best 
shown  in  connection  with  the  academy  movement  in  New 
England  and  the  Free  School  Society  movement  in  New 
York  City. 

As  already  stated,  one  of  the  results  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  district  school  system  im  New  England  was 
the  disappearance  of  the  "grammar"  school,  which  had 
provided  secondary  education.  The  increase  in  the  cost 
of  supporting  several  district  elementary  schools  in  a 
town  reduced  the  town's  financial  capacity  to  maintain 
any  secondary  school.  This  difficulty,  which  had  existed 
before  the  Revolution,  was  increased  by  the  poverty 
resulting  from  the  Revolution.  But  the  well-to-do 
classes  would  not  let  their  children  go  without  secondary 
instruction,  and  the  policy  was  inaugurated  of  estab- 
lishing private  secondary  schools  called  "  academies. " 
Tho  these  academies  were  private  corporations,  thru 
the  influence  of  their  supporters  they  were  usually  able 
to  receive  subsidies  of  public  moneys  either  from  the 
state  government  or  from  the  towns.  They  performed 
a  splendid  service,  for  they  were  generally  well  organ- 
ized and  administered,  were  responsive  to  the  needs  of 
their  constituents,  introduced  modern  subjects  like  Eng- 
lish literature  and  science,  which  in  turn  influenced  col- 

337 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

lege  curricula,  and  thru  their  demand  for  well-equipped 
teachers  helped  to  hasten  the  advent  of  the  normal 
schools.  But  they  were  pay  schools  and  hence  not  open 
to  the  children  of  the  masses;  they  withdrew  the  at- 
tention of  the  well-to-do  and  public-spirited  from  public 
education  just  when  it  was  most  needed  there;  and 
they  created  vested  interests  which  were  often  opposed 
to  public  interests.  When  one  considers  that  by  1840 
Massachusetts  alone  had  fifty  such  private  academies 
subsidized  with  public  funds  and  that  the  movement 
had  spread  thruout  the  country,  one  can  realize  the 
extent  to  which  they  were  an  obstacle  to  the  growth  of 
public  secondary  schools. 

The  Free  School  Society  of  New  York  City  was  or- 
ganized in  1805  by  a  body  of  philanthropists  headed 
by  De  Witt  Clinton*,  to  establish  schools  for  children  who 
did  not  attend  either  the  church  or  the  private  schools 
which  then  provided  the  very  inadequate  school  facili- 
ties of  the  city.  The  Society  prospered  from  the  very 
beginning,  sharing  in  the  state  school  fund  that  had 
been  established  and  receiving  grants  of  money  from 
the  city  government.  In  1826  it  secure'd  a  new  charter 
from  the  state,  changing  its  name  to  the  Public  School 
Society  of  New  York  and  granting  it  permission  to 
charge  a  fee  for  children  whose  parents  could  afford 
it.  The  great  service  it  was  rendering  was  at  once  made 
evident,  for  the  attendance  at  its  schools  immediately 
fell  off  because  many  parents  ''were  too  poor  to  pay 
and  too  proud  to  confess  their  poverty."  The  system 
was  abolished  after  a  few  years  of  trial,  and  the  schools 
again  made  free  to  all ;  but  the  name  Public  School  So- 
ciety was  retained  as  less  suggestive  of  pauperism.  A 
local  tax  for  the  support  of  schools  was  authorized  by 
the  state  legislature  in  1828,  the  proceeds  of  which  were 

338 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

panted  to  the  Society.  It  maintained  its  prosperous 
career,  continued  to  found  schools,  and  seemed  to  be 
thoroly  intrenched  in  its  control  of  elementary  educa- 
tion. Fortunately  for  the  cause  of  public  education,  the 
Society  had  aroused  the  suspicion  and  animosity  of 
several  of  the  religious  sects  which  repeatedly  demanded 
of  the  City  Council  the  right  of  their  schools  to  share 
in  the  public  school  funds.  The  City  Council  refused 
to  meet  these  demands,  and  in  1842  the  Catholics  took 
the  fight  to  the  legislature  on  the  ground  that  the  non- 
sectarian  instruction  given  in  the  schools  of  the  Society 
was  really  Protestant.  As  a  result  of  the  legislative 
hearings  it  became  evident  that  the  public  welfare  would 
not  best  be  served  either  by  continuing  to  grant  the 
school  funds  to  a  private  corporation  or  by  dividing 
them  among  warring  religious  sects.  The  legislature, 
therefore,  in  1842  established  a  Board  of  Education  for 
New  York  City,  to  be  elected  by  the  people  and  to  con- 
trol the  use  of  the  school  funds,  no  portion  of  which 
was  to  be  given  to  a  sectarian  school.  Thus  was  estab- 
lished New  York  City's  system  of  public  elementary 
schools. 

2.  Sectarian  Religious  Jealousy. — The  second  obstacle 
to  the  development  of  public  education  was  sectarian 
religious  jealousy.  The  work  of  the  Public  School  So- 
ciety of  New  York  was  imitated  by  similar  societies  in 
other  cities,  such  as  Philadelphia,  tho  not  with  the  same 
degree  of  success :  their  efforts  did  not  usually  have  the 
beneficial  effect  upon  the  development  of  public  educa- 
tion seen  in  New  York  City.  Far  more  typical  was  the 
experience  of  Pennsylvania.  Some  of  the  most  progres- 
sive leaders  in  Pennsylvania  after  the  Revolution  worked 
for  the  establishment  of  public  elementary  education, 
but  in  vain.  The  generally  accepted  opinion  was  that 

339 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

elementary  education  should  be  provided  by  the 
churches.  Quakers,  Lutherans,  Mennonites,  and  Re- 
formed all  opposed  a  movement  which  would  prevent 
the  teaching  of  their  own  peculiar  forms  of  religion  and 
which  would  also  render  valueless  the  school  property 
that  they  had  accumulated.  The  result  was  that  the  best 
the  reformers  could  do  was  to  secure  legislation,  in 
1802,  to  provide  for  the  payment  to  private  schools  of 
public  moneys  raised  by  local  taxation,  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  children  whose  parents  were  too  poor  to  pay. 
Tho  this  law  was  modified  to  allow  certain  localities,  like 
Philadelphia,  to  establish  "pauper"  schools  for  chil- 
dren of  poor  parents  instead  of  paying  for  them  in 
private  schools,  it  remained  the  law  for  the  whole  state 
until  1834.  In  that  year  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Public  Schools  secured  after  seven 
years  of  agitation  the  passage  of  a  law  permitting  town- 
ships and  boroughs  to  constitute  themselves  into  school 
districts  to  levy  school  taxes  for  common  schools  and 
thereby  to  share  in  the  state  common  school  fund  which 
had  been  established.  Sectarian  opposition  was  so  strong 
in  "old,"  i.  e.,  eastern,  Pennsylvania  that  over  one- 
half  of  the  school  districts  of  the  whole  state  either 
voted  against  levying  the  tax  or  took  no  action.  A 
strong  fight  was  made  in  the  following  year  to  secure 
the  repeal  of  the  law,  but,  largely  because  of  the  vigor- 
ous support  given  to  the  law  by  the  people  of  the  north- 
ern and  western  counties  inhabited  by  New  Englanders 
and  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian  colonists,  the  attempt 
failed.  Sectarian  opposition  delayed  in  a  similar  man- 
ner the  establishment  of  a  public  school  system  in  New 
Jersey  and  Delaware. 

3.  The  Idea  of  Public  Education  as  Pauper  Educa- 
tion.— A  third  obstacle  to  the  development  of  public 

340 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

education  was  the  prevalence  of  the  idea  of  public  edu- 
cation as  pauper  education.  The  delay  in  the  establish- 
ment of  common  schools  in  Pennsylvania,  tho  chiefly 
due  to  sectarian  opposition,  was  strengthened  by  the 
dislike  of  poor  parents  of  sending  their  children  as 
paupers  either  to  private  schools  or  to  public  " pauper" 
schools.  And  the  idea  that  public  education  meant 
pauper  education  prevailed  generally  thruout  the  coun- 
try south  of  New  England.  How  great  an  obstacle  to 
the  spread  of  public  schools  this  idea  was,  may,  perhaps, 
best  be  illustrated  from  the  history  of  education  in  the 
South.  We  have  seen  that  in  the  South  generally  very 
little  interest  in  the  establishment  of  common  elementary 
schools  had  been  shown  by  the  influential  classes  before 
the  Revolution.  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  chief  ad- 
herent of  the  public  school ;  even  during  the  war  he  in- 
troduced a  bill  into  the  legislature  to  establish  a  sys- 
tem of  public  education  extending  from  the  elementary 
school  thru  the  college.  This  was,  of  course,  far  in 
advance  of  the  times,  but  Jefferson  was  able  to  stimu- 
late sufficient  interest  to  secure  the  passage  of  a  law  in 
1796  to  permit  the  justices  of  each  community  to  estab- 
lish public  schools  by  local  taxation.  Nothing  was  ac- 
complished, however,  until  in  1810  the  legislature  estab* 
lished  a  " literary  fund"  for  the  support  of  public  edu- 
cation. The  considerable  amount  of  money  accumulated 
in  this  fund  was  devoted  chiefly  to  the  establishment  of 
the  University  of  Virginia  in  1820,  tho  $45,000  was  ap- 
propriated in  1818  to  subsidize  schools  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  poor  children.  These  actions  will  illustrate  the 
general  attitude  toward  the  educational  problem  on 
the  part  of  the  influential  classes.  Jefferson  advocated 
the  public  schools  as  an  institution  for  training  in  citi- 
zenship. What  eventuated  was  a  form  of  poor  relief. 

341 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Nevertheless  the  system  of  "poor"  schools  that  came 
to  be  established  from  the  proceeds  of  the  literary  fund, 
while  wholly  inadequate,  did  familiarize  the  minds  of 
the  people  with  the  idea  of  public  support  of  elementary 
schools.  The  same  social  discrimination  against  the  pub- 
lic school  as  a  pauper  institution  prevailed  in  varying 
degrees  in  the  other  southern  states.  But  thru  the  es- 
tablishment of  literary  "funds  to  subsidize  schools  for 
the  poor  and  the  passage  of  permissive  laws  to  estab- 
lish common  schools,  some  progress  had  been  made  by 
the  time  of  Horace  Mann.  In  fact,  in  nearly  all  the 
large  cities  of  the  South  regular  systems  of  public 
schools  had  been  established. 

4.  The  Existence  of  the  District  Schools. — A 
fourth  obstacle  to  the  development  of  public  education 
was  the  existence  of  the  district  school.  We  have  al- 
ready seen  that  by  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  town 
school  in  New  England  had  gradually  given  way  to  the 
district  school.  The  latter  was  at  first  something  in  the 
nature  of  a  convenience  developed  by  local  necessity, 
but  it  gradually  acquired  legal  existence.  The  school 
district  was  given  power  to  levy  local  taxes  and  to  en- 
force contracts,  and  finally,  in  1827,  to  elect  a  school 
committeeman  to  take  charge  of  the  school  property 
and  to  employ  the  teacher.  The  result  was  that  every- 
thing connected  with  the  school,  the  selection  of  the  site, 
the  choice  of  the  committeeman,  the  appointment  of  the 
teacher,  became  a  matter  of  political  strife,  in  which  sec- 
tarian antagonisms  and  petty  private  interests  pre- 
vailed. Poor  schools  with  inefficient  teachers,  open  for 
but  a  few  months  of  the  year,  were  the  natural  conse- 
quence. However,  there  were  not  lacking  men  who 
perceived  the  evils  of  the  district  school  system,  and  a 
vigorous  campaign  was  carried  on  in  the  press  and  on 

342 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

the  platform  for  their  betterment.  The  most  influential 
advocate  of  reform  was  James  G.  Carter  (1795-1849), 
who  as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature  se- 
cured the  passage  of  several  acts  which  were  the  real 
beginning  of  the  public  school  revival.  In  1826  every 
town  was  required  to  choose  a  school  committee  to  super- 
vise the  schools  of  the  town,  select  textbooks,  and  cer- 
tify teachers,  tho  the  district  committeeman  could  still 
appoint  a  teacher.  In  1834  a  state  school  fund  was 
established,  in  which  a  town  could  share  on  condition 
that  it  raise  by  tax  a  dollar  for  each  child  of  school  age. 
Carter's  efforts  culminated  in  1837  in  the  passage  of  a 
bill  for  the  establishment  of  a  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion to  consist  of  eight  members.  It  was  to  have  no  ex- 
ecutive powers,  but  was  to  collect  information  upon 
school  affairs  and  recommend  changes  to  the  legisla- 
ture. Horace  Mann  was  elected  its  first  secretary,  and 
with  his  name  is  associated  the  reform  of  the  district 
school. 

5.  The  Claim  That  the  Public  School  Was  Based  upon 
an  Undemocratic  Principle. — A  fifth  obstacle  to  the  de- 
velopment of  public  education  was  the  claim  that  the 
public  school  was  based  upon  an  undemocratic  principle. 
In  all  the  sections  of  the  country  that  we  have  thus 
far  discussed  many  wealthy  persons  were  found  in  the 
first  ranks  of  the  reformers  who  demanded  free  schools 
for  all,  supported  and  controlled  by  public  agencies. 
But  the  selfish  propertied  classes  everywhere  bolstered 
their  opposition  to  public  support  upon  the  ground 
that  it  was  both  undemocratic  and  unjust  to  compel 
people  without  children  to  pay  for  a  service  from  which 
they  received  no  benefit.  That  this  should  be  true  in 
the  older  states  of  the  East  is  not  so  surprising;  but 
it  held  true  also  in  the  newer  states  west  of  the  Alle- 

343 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

ghanies,  and  delaye'd  the  development  of  public  schools 
there. 

Immigration  from  the  older  states  westward  followed 
parallels  of  latitude,  and  the  social  and  educational 
ideals  that  prevailed  in  the  new  states'  were  determined 
by  the  place  of  origin  of  the  settlers.  The  attitude  of 
indifference  that  prevailed  in  the  old  southern  states 
was  carried,  with  diminished  force  it  is  true,  into  the 
new  states  south  of  the  Ohio  River.  The  territory  north 
of  the  Ohio  was  claimed  "in  part  by  older  states  both 
of  the  North  and  South.  Its  southern  regions  were 
settled  largely  by  people  from  the  southern  states  and 
its  northern  portion  by  people,  from  New  England  and 
New  York.  All  the  states  that  made  claim  to  part  of 
this  territory  finally  ceded  their  claims  to  the  federal 
government  and  the  territory  was  organized  under  the 
famous  Ordinance  of  1787.  In  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act  the  entire  territory  was  divided  into 
townships  six  miles  square,  and  of  the  thirty-six  sections 
into  which  each  town  was  subdivided;  section  sixteen 
was  reserved  for  the  support  of  public  schools.  More- 
over, by  a  later  act  two  or  three  whole  townships  were 
reserved  for  the  support  of  a  state  university.  This  ad- 
mirable policy  was  continued  in  all  the  federal  terri- 
tory which  was  afterwards  secured  by  the  United  States 
thru  purchase  or  conquest  and  sold  to  the  residents  of 
the  states  created  out  of  it. 

It  is  obvious  that  a  firm  foundation  was  thereby  pro- 
vided for  a  system  of  public  education.  One  might  as- 
sume that,  buttressed  by  the  new  social  system  that  arose 
in  the  West,  in  which  personal  worth  counted  for  more 
than  social  influence  an'd  the  demand  for  "a  free  field 
and  no  favor"  was  the  most  popular  maxim,  this  policy 
would  have  brought  immediate  results.  But  people's  at- 

344 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

tention  was  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  founding  a 
home  in  a  wild  and  unsettled  country,  where  no  facilities 
for  transportation  and  communication  existed.  The 
successful  man  was  not  the  man  of  "book  learning/' 
who  was  viewed  rather  with  disdain ;  but  the  strong  man 
of  shrewd  judgment  who  could  hew  his  way  to  the 
top,  an'5  who  often  did  not  see  why  his  success  should 
be  penalized  by  taxation  in  favor  of  the  less  successful. 
This  view,  strengthened  by  other  unfavorable  influences, 
such  as  the  sectarian  jealousies  brought  by  the  settlers 
to  their  new  homes,  resulted  in  the  halting  advance  of 
public  education  which  is  associated  with  subsidies  to 
private  schools  for  the  instruction  of  poor  children  and 
"permissive'7  legislation  for  the  establishment  of  pub- 
lic schools.  In  1824  an  act  was  passed  in  Indiana  per- 
mitting townships  to  elect  school  trustees  to  control  the 
schools  that  might  be  established.  It  was  ineffective  be- 
cause few  schools  were  established.  In  1831  another  act 
permitted  the  voters  of  the  school  districts  into  which 
townships  were  divided  to  decide  the  amount  of  local 
tax  to  be  levied  for  the  support  of  public  schools.  But 
the  act  contained  the  proviso  that  "no  person  should 
be  liable  for  tax  who  does  not,  or  does  not  wish  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  benefit  of  the  school  fund/'  Altho  addi- 
tional school  legislation  was  made  before  1840  in  Indi- 
ana, it  did  not  result  in  the  establishment  of  a  public 
school  system.  This  was  also  true  of  Illinois;  but  Ohio 
and  Michigan,  the  other  two  states  carved  from  the 
Northwest  Territory,  succeeded  in  establishing  a  com- 
plete system,  with  a  state  superintendent  to  supervise  it, 
in  1836  and  1837,  respectively. 

B.  Movements  Stimulating  the  Development  of  Public 
Education. — As  these  movements  were  nearly  all  philan- 
thropic in  character  they  have  been  discussed  in  Chapter 

345 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

XVI,  and  it  remains  only  briefly  to  explain  their  in- 
fluence in  stimulating  the  development  of  the  public 
school  system  of  the  United  States. 

1.  The  Sunday  School  Movement. — It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  as  first  organized  the  Sunday  school  was  not 
a  church  institution  but  was  organized  to  educate  the 
poor,  the  ignorant,  and  the  vicious,  and  that  in  it  were 
taught  secular  as  well  as  religious  subjects.    It  is  true 
that  the  secular  Sunday  schools  stimulated  the  churches 
to  action,  and  that  the  Sunday  school  soon  fell  almost  ex- 
clusively under  church  control  and  gave  up  secular  in- 
struction.   But  it  became  an  institution  for  all  children 
instead  of  for  the  poor  and  ignorant  only,  and  was  a 
step  in  the  direction  of  accustoming  people  to  think  of 
secular  education  for  all. 

2.  The  Monitorial  System. — So  slight  was  the  provi- 
sion for  free  education  in  most  parts  of  the  United  States 
when  Lancaster's  system  of  monitorial  teaching  was  in- 
troduced in  1806,  that  cheap  instruction  was  absolutely 
essential  to  the  introduction  of  any  system  of  public 
education.     The  monitorial  system  was  just  what  was 
needed.    As  late  as  1834,  in  Philadelphia,  there  was  but 
one  teacher  to  two  hundred  and  eighteen  pupils  and  the 
cost  per  pupil  never  rose  above  $5.00  per  annum.    The 
cheapness  of  the  system  had  a  great  influence  in  secur- 
ing appropriations  from  legislatures  for  the  establish- 
ment of  public  schools.    Moreover,  the  enthusiasm  of  its 
advocates  awakened   thought  and  provoked  discussion 
on  the  question  of  education  in  all  its  aspects.    And  the 
model  schools  which  were  established  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  teachers  prepared  the  way  for  the  normal  schools 
which  had  so  much  to  do  with   the  improvement  of 
public  education  in  the  United  States. 

3.  The  Infant  School  Movement. — This  movement  is 

346 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

responsible  for  the  organization  of  primary  education  in 
the  United  States,  which  up  to  the  time  of  the  spread 
of  the  movement  had  been  sadly  neglected.  It  came 
at  an  opportune  time,  when  opposition  to  the  monitorial 
system  had  begun  to  develop  upon  pedagogical  grounds 
and  the  demand  that  small  group  work  supersede  mass 
instruction  became  pronounced.  The  infant  school  was 
also  instrumental  in  introducing  Pestalozzian  methods 
into  elementary  education  and  developing  a  preference 
for  female  teachers  for  younger  pupils.  At  first  the 
infant  school  was  entirely  distinct  from  the  elementary 
school,  but  when  both  were  taken  over  from  philan- 
thropic agencies  by  the  public  authorities,  the  infant 
school  became  the  primary  department  of  the  elementary 
school. 

4.  Foreign  Influences  Favorable  to  the  Spread  of  Pub- 
lic Education. — The  discussions  and  resolutions  in  the 
French  Revolutionary  Assembly  in  favor  of  public  ele- 
mentary education  had  a  direct  effect  upon  some  leaders 
of  thought  in  the  United  States,  notably  Jefferson.    But 
far  more  influential  were  the  numerous  official  and  un- 
official reports  of  the  Prussian  and  other  German  sys- 
tems of  state  education,  that  were  published  in  the 
United  States  between  1820  and  1840.     Some  of  these 
reports  were  reprinted  for  distribution  by  several  states. 
Moreover,  the  great  mass  of  intelligent  Germans  who 
emigrated  to  the  United  States  after  the  Revolution  of 
1848  were  imbued  with  the  idea  of  school  systems  sup- 
ported and  controlled  by  the  state,  and  they  became 
centers  of  influence  in  favor  of  the  establishment  of 
public  systems  in  the  communities  where  they  settled. 

5.  Results  of  the  Interplay  of  These  Opposing  In- 
fluences.— When  the  Revolution  was  over,  the  educa- 
tional ideals  and  institutions  that  had  been  transplanted 

347 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

from  Europe  in  the  Colonial  period  still  prevailed  out- 
side of  New  England.  Until  the  end  of  the  transition 
period,  about  1840,  the  obstacles  that  have  been  dis- 
cussed in  this  section  had  been  sufficiently  strong  to  pre- 
vent the  establishment,  except  in  a  few  states,  of  a 
general  system  of  public  education.  But  the  growing 
spirit  of  democracy  everywhere,  combined  with  the  ne- 
cessity of  meeting  the  demands  of  a  new  environment, 
brought  about  a  great  change  in  ideals  and  considerable 
change  in  institutions.  Everywhere  education  was  be- 
coming less  aristocratic  and  sectarian,  more  democratic 
and  secular.  But  despite  that  fact  and  despite  the  in- 
fluence of  the  movements  that  we  have  just  discussed, 
which  so  strongly  assisted  in  the  development  of  a  pub- 
lic school  system,  that  hoped-for  end  came  only  as  the 
result  of  a  great  awakening,  to  which  we  must  now 
direct  our  attention. 


777.  The  Public  School  Revival  (1837-1876) 

The  movement  known  as  the  " public  school  revival" 
began  with  an  attempt  to  arouse  interest  in  the  reform 
of  the  existing  common  schools,  and  eventuated  in  all 
states  in  a  public  educational  system  providing  free 
elementary  and  secondary  education,  and  in  many  states 
higher  education  also.  The  revival  was  well  launched  by 
1840  and  had  in  general  accomplished  its  aim  by  the 
close  of  the  Reconstruction  period  in  1876,  except  in  the 
southern  states.  There,  tho  the  principle  upon  which 
it  was  based  had  been  adopted,  its  realization  was  de- 
layed by  the  deplorable  conditions  resulting  from  the 
Civil  War.  The  movement  can  best  be  understood  by  a 
study  of  the  career  of  a  few  of  its  great  leaders,  and  the 
one  first  to  be  considered  is  Horace  Mann. 

348 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

Horace  Mann  (1796-1859). — Horace  Mann  was  born 
in  western  Massachusetts  of  poor  parents  who  could 
give  him  no  education  beyond  that  of  the  neighboring 
district  school ;  but  almost  wholly  by  his  own  efforts  he 
was  able  to  graduate  from  Brown  University  and  after- 
wards to  enter  the  legal  profession,  of  which  he  became 
a  distinguished  member  in  Boston.  He  was  deeply  in- 
terested in  practically  every  contemporaneous  movement 
for  social  welfare,  was  singularly  unselfish  in  character, 
and  was  possessed  of  the  sound  judgment  that  is  usually 
associated  with  wide  experience.  All  these  traits  were 
needed  by  the  man  who  was  to  be  the  first  secretary 
to  the  new  State  Board  of  Education,  which  was  estab- 
lished by  Massachusetts  in  1837.  For  the  board  had  no 
real  powers;  and  its  permanence,  influence,  and  success 
depended  almost  wholly  upon  the  character,  intelligence, 
and  ability  of  its  secretary.  The  work  accomplished  dur- 
ing the  twelve  years  of  his  incumbency  of  that  office 
(1837-1849)  proved  the  wisdom  of  the  choice  of  Mr. 
Mann. 

Mr.  Mann  understood  that  his  first  great  task  was 
to  arouse  a  new  public  spirit,  to  change  the  apathy  and 
indifference  of  the  people  towards  the  common  schools 
into  active  enthusiasm.  To  do  this  he  collected  informa- 
tion in  every  possible  way  concerning  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  district  schools  in  the  United  States,  and 
concerning  improved  methods  and  systems  elsewhere 
which  might  serve  as  models.  With  this  information 
at  his  disposal,  he  adopted  three  methods  of  educating 
the  people  of  Massachusetts :  ( 1 )  he  made  tours  of  the 
entire  state,  holding  public  meetings  at  which  he  ex- 
plained the  need  of  improvement  and  the  means  whereby 
it  might  be  realized;  (2)  he  issued  his  famous  Annual 
Reports,  which  treat  of  practically  every  educational 

349 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

problem  of  interest  at  the  time  and  which  were  read 
extensively  not  only  in  Massachusetts  but  in  many  other 
states;  (3)  he  published  the  Common  School  Joiirnal  to 
spread  information  periodically  concerning  the  work  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  the  evil  conditions  found,  and 
the  ways  best  calculated  to  overcome  them. 

As  a  result  of  this  campaign  of  education,  carried  on 
at  the  expense  of  his  health  and  financial  resources,  Mr. 
Mann  was  able  to  secure  reforms  in  the  public  educa- 
tional systems  of  Massachusetts  which  are  little  less  than 
astonishing  in  their  extent  and  value.  Among  these 
reforms  the  following  are  important:  (1)  The  estab- 
lishment of  three  public  normal  schools  in  different  parts 
of  the  state  for  the  proper  training  of  teachers.  These 
were  highly  successful  from  the  start  and  had  a  great 
influence  in  elevating  the  teaching  vocation  in  public 
esteem.  (2)  The  addition  of  a  full  month  to  the  aver- 
age school  year  and  the  remarkable  increase  in  at- 
tendance of  pupils  in  the  elementary  school.  (3)  The 
gradual  substitution  of  the  public  high  school  for  the 
private  academy.  Before  the  close  of  his  tenure  of 
the  office  of  secretary,  fifty  new  high  schools  had  been 
established.  (4)  The  growth  of  appropriations  for  pub- 
lic education,  which  were  more  than  doubled  during 
his  regime.  The  ratio  of  private  school  expenditures  to 
those  of  the  public  schools  was  decreased  from  seventy- 
five  to  thirty-six  per  cent.  (5)  The  increase  in  compen- 
sation for  teachers,  which,  in  the  case  of  men,  was 
sixty-two  per  cent,  and  of  women,  fifty-one  per  cent, 
tho  the  number  of  women  teachers  had  more  than 
doubled.  (6)  The  adoption  of  new  agencies  for  increas- 
ing the  efficiency  of  teachers,  such  as  teachers '  institutes 
and  school  libraries.  (7)  The  adoption  of  new  methods 
of  teaching,  especially  Pestalozzian  object  lessons  and 

350 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

oral  instruction,  and  of  milder  discipline  based  upon  an 
understanding  of  child  nature. 

These  admirable  reforms  were  not  secured,  however, 
without  bitter  opposition,  especially  from  two  sources: 
the  conservative  schoolmasters,  and  the  sectarian  re- 
ligious interests.  Mr.  Mann's  Seventh  Annual  Report 
)  was  the  one  which  gave  particular  offense  to  the 
unprogressive  teachers;  it  brought  about  a  storm  of 
controversy.  It  gave  an  account  of  his  visit  to  foreign 
schools  during  the  previous  year  and  was  full  of  praise 
for  what  he  saw  in  the  Prussian  schools,  where  real  in- 
struction was  given  by  teachers  instead  of  the  mere  hear- 
ing of  recitations  from  books,  where  the  arousing  of  in- 
terest was  relied  upon  to  secure  attention  instead  of  the 
giving  of  punishment,  and  where  teachers  were  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  instead  of  dull  routine. 
The  Report  did  not  mention  the  Boston  schools,  but  the 
conservative  teachers  of  Boston  felt  themselves  attacked 
and  made  a  savage  reply.  The  attention  that  was  drawn 
by  the  controversy  to  the  reforms  advocated  by  Mr. 
Mann  hastened  their  adoption. 

The  assaults  of  the  sectarians  were  more  difficult  to 
repel,  because  they  were  more  vague.  Mr.  Mann  was  a 
Unitarian,  and  he  was  accused  of  causing  the  disappear- 
ance of  religion  and  the  religious  spirit  from  the  schools. 
Tho  this  appeal  to  religious  prejudice  was  not  successful 
and  the  attempt  to  secure  the  abolition  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education  failed,  the  controversies  in  which 
he  had  to  engage  wore  Mr.  Mann  out  and  he  resigned 
in  1849.  But  the  controversies  served  to  spread  a  knowl- 
edge of  his  reforms  thruout  the  country  and  added 
greatly  to  his  reputation.  He  afterwards  became  pres- 
ident of  Antioch  College,  Ohio,  where  he  died  in  1859. 

The  Work  of  Henry  Barnard  (1811-1900).— So  much 
351 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

was  accomplished  by  Horace  Mann  during  the  twelve 
years  of  his  secretaryship  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Board  of  Education  that  the  public  school  revival  has 
become  inseparably  associated  with  his  name,  and  the 
student  is  likely  to  forget  that  he  was  only  the  most 
striking  figure  among  a  number  of  men  to  whom  the 
success  of  the  movement  was  due.  The  man  who  was 
the  literary  and  philosophic  exponent  of  the  movement, 
and  who  had  a  greater  influence  than  Horace  Mann  in 
the  United  States  outside  New  England,  was  Henry 
Barnard.  Barnard  came  of  a  cultured  Connecticut  fam- 
ily, was  a  brilliant  student  at  Yale,  and  traveled  widely 
in  Europe  and  America,  familiarizing  himself  with  so- 
cial and  educational  conditions  wherever  he  went.  The 
great  work  which  Horace  Mann  accomplished  for  educa- 
tional reform  in  Massachusetts,  Barnard  accomplished 
for  Connecticut,  as  its  first  state  superintendent  of 
schools,  and  for  Rhode  Island,  as  its  first  commissioner 
of  schools.  Moreover,  largely  as  the  result  of  the  agita- 
tion he  carried  on  for  many  years  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  federal  agency  for  the  collection  and  pub- 
lication of  trustworthy  information  and  statistics,  the 
Bureau  of  Education  at  Washington  was  established 
in  1867  and  Barnard  was  made  its  first  commissioner. 
He  organized  the  Bureau  upon  the  lines  along  which  it 
has  ever  since  been  administered,  and  tho  compelled  for 
political  reasons  to  relinquish  the  position  at  the  end  of 
three  years,  he  had  already  made  searching  investiga- 
tions into  almost  every  phase  of  school  legislation,  or- 
ganization, instruction,  and  discipline. 

Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education. — But  the 
splendid  work  of  organization  and  administration  ac- 
complished by  Barnard  was  not  his  chief  contribution 
to  the  spread  of  the  movement  in  favor  of  public  sys- 

352 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

terns  and  of  reformed  educational  practices  in  the 
United  States.  Tho  some  reports  of  the  great  advances 
that  had  been  made  in  Europe  as  the  result  of  the  work 
of  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and  Froebel  had  been 
published  in  the  United  States,  they  were  desultory  and 
fragmentary,  and  hence  there  was  great  need  of  a  care- 
ful and  systematic  exposition  of  their  principles  and 
methods,  if  these  were  to  influence  the  great  mass  of 
American  teachers.  Particularly  was  it  necessary,  now 
that  Americans  were  becoming  awakened  to  the  need 
of  a  system  of  public  schools  supported  and  controlled 
by  the  state,  that  they  be  acquainted  with  the  systems 
established  in  European  countries,  especially  in  Ger- 
many. This  information  was  given  in  Barnard's  Amer- 
ican Journal  of  Education,,  l '  the  most  encyclopedic  work 
on  education  in  any  tongue."  To  this  monumental 
work  Barnard  devoted  every  spare  hour  of  his  time 
and  his  whole  considerable  fortune  during  an  entire 
generation  (1855-1881),  and  the  thirty-one  volumes  of 
the  Journal  form  a  mine  from  which  almost  every  Amer- 
ican writer  on  education  has  since  dug  jewels.  The 
Journal  contains  exhaustive  discussions  on  almost  every 
conceivable  educational  topic.  The  professional  train- 
ing of  teachers,  the  education  of  delinquents  and  de- 
fectives, school  architecture,  the  principles  and  practices 
of  all  the  great  educators  from  early  times  to  contem- 
porary times  are  but  a  few  of  the  important  subjects  con- 
sidered. The  Journal  stimulated  the  introduction  of 
Pestalozzian  methods,  and  gave  the  first  adequate  and 
influential  description  in  America  of  the  kindergarten 
(1856).  In  fact  practically  every  reform  introduced 
into  American  education  down  to  1880  owes  much  of 
its  success  to  the  support  of  Barnard's  Journal,  and  as 
a  source  of  information  upon  the  development  of  ideals 

353 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

and  systems  in  the  various  states  of  our  country  it  is 
without  a  peer. 

Influence  of  the  Revival. — In  New  England. — As  a  re- 
sult of  the  awakening  in  New  England,  the  indifference 
that  had  been  the  popular  attitude  towards  the  common 
school  rapidly  disappeared,  and  in  no  part  of  the  country 
did  affection  for  it  as  the  people 's  most  cherished  institu- 
tion become  so  deeply  imbedded.  Horace  Mann  and 
Henry  Barnard  had  worthy  successors  in  the  boards  of 
education  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode 
Island,  men  who  prosecuted  their  reforms  with  vigor 
and  wisdom.  The  State  boards  were  constantly  given 
increased  powers  and  used  them  to  encourage  action 
upon  the  part  of  the  localities  by  means  of  inspection, 
supervision,  and  the  distribution  of  state  funds  to 
improve  buildings,  equipment,  and  the  status  of  teachers. 
By  the  close  of  this  period  (1876)  the  district  system  had 
been  forced  out  of  existence  in  a  great  many  places, 
a  very  large  number  of  the  private  academies  had  dis- 
appeared because  of  inability  to  compete  with  the  pub- 
lic high  school,  and  almost  all  of  the  large  cities  had 
provided  for  superintendents  of  schools.  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Vermont,  because  of  sparseness  of  popu- 
lation and  poverty  of  resources,  introduced  similar  re- 
forms more  slowly,  but  all  had  adopted  a  centralized 
administration  of  their  schools  by  the  close  of  the 
period. 

In  the  Middle  States. — When  Horace  Mann  began  his 
great  campaign  in  Massachusetts  in  1837,  New  York  was 
the  most  advanced  state  educationally  in  the  country. 
As  early  as  1784  the  state  board  of  regents  had  been 
founded  with  the  title  "The  University  of  the  State  of 
New  York,"  to  organize  a  system  of  public  education 
above  the  elementary  schools.  And  the  Legislature 

354 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

made  frequent  appropriations  of  money  for  distribution 
at  first  among  those  counties,  and  afterward  among 
those  townships  which  would  contribute  their  share 
towards  the  support  of  elementary  schools.  In  1812 
a  state  superintendent  was  appointed,  the  first  in  the 
United  States;  and  tho  in  1820  for  political  reasons 
the  office  was  combined  with  that  of  secretary  of  state, 
from  that  time  much  was  done  to  centralize  control 
and  build  up  a  public  school  system  thruout  the  state. 
Nevertheless  opposition  prevailed  in  many  of  the  local 
areas  against  local  taxation  for  the  support  of  common 
schools.  The  private  academies  were  given  public 
moneys  by  the  state  for  the  training  of  teachers;  and 
altho  New  York  City  founded  a  public  school  system 
in  1842,  the  public  schools  had  to  compete  with  those 
of  the  Public  School  Society  until  1853,  when  the  So- 
ciety turned  over  its  property  to  the  city's  board  of 
education.  That  action  is  but  one  of  several  showing 
the  influence  of  the  revival  in  New  York.  In  1844  the 
first  state  normal  school  was  opened  at  Albany ;  in  1854 
the  state  superintendent  was  again  given  a  separate 
existence,  and  finally  in  1867  elementary  education  was 
made  entirely  free  thruout  the  state  by  the  abolition 
of  tuition  fees.  What  was  accomplished  in  New  York 
is  typical  of  what  was  done  in  the  other  middle  states, 
only  progress  was  more  slow.  In  1849  the  "  permis- 
sive "  provision  of  the  Pennsylvania  state  law,  whereby 
a  district  could  decide  whether  it  would  levy  a  local 
tax  for  the  support  of  common  schools  and  thereby 
share  in  the  state  school  fund,  was  abolished  and  the 
law  was  made  compulsory.  In  1857  the  state  superin- 
tendent of  schools  was  given  an  existence  separate  from 
the  secretaryship  of  state,  and  provision  was  made  for 
the  establishment  of  normal  schools.  By  the  close  of 

355 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  period  (1876)  Pennsylvania  had  a  complete  system 
of  state  public  schools.  This  was  also  true  of  New 
Jersey.  Delaware  did  not  organize  a  complete  state 
system  until  after  the  Civil  War  and  did  not  estab- 
lish a  state  board  with  a  state  superintendent  until 
1875. 

The  Spread  of  Public  School  Systems  in  the  West. — In 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  the  history  of  the  establish- 
ment of  public  school  systems  contains  the  same  general 
features.  In  all  three  there  was  a  struggle  between  the 
settlers  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  states,  who  usually 
came  from  regions  south  of  the  Ohio,  where  free  schools 
were  considered  to  be  only  for  paupers,  and  the  settlers 
in  the  northern  parts  of  the  state,  who  came  chiefly 
from  New  England  and  New  York.  In  all  three  the 
campaign  centered  about  the  personality  of  some  great 
enthusiast — Samuel  Galloway  in  Ohio,  Caleb  Mills  in 
Indiana,  and  Ninian  W.  Edwards  in  Illinois.  In  all 
three  the  plan  was  the  same,  viz.,  to  arouse  public  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  common  schools  by  holding  common 
school  conventions;  to  distribute  pamphlets  containing 
the  facts  concerning  the  illiteracy  of  the  people  and  the 
wretched  conditions  of  the  schools;  and  to  lobby  at  the 
state  legislatures  for  good  laws.  In  all  three,  despite 
the  influence  of  local  sectarian  and  vested  interests,  suc- 
cess was  finally  attained.  The  strength  of  the  forces 
opposed  to  the  principle  of  public  support  of  free 
schools  is  illustrated  in  the  referendum  vote  taken  in 
1847  in  Indiana,  when  78,000  votes  were  cast  in  favor 
and  61,000  against.  Even  then  the  "permissive"  pro- 
vision of  the  law  of  1849,  passed  to  realize  the  principle, 
enabled  one-third  of  the  counties  to  neglect  to  organize 
schools;  and  private  schools  were  enabled  to  share  in 
the  public  funds  at  the  discretion  of  the  township  trus- 

356 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

tees.  But  by  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  subsi- 
dizing of  private  schools  with  public  moneys  and  the 
'  *  permissive  ' '  provision  in  the  state  school  laws  had  dis- 
appeared, and  a  complete  system  of  public  schools  in  all 
three  states  had  been  established.  In  Michigan,  which 
was  settled  chiefly  by  New  Englanders,  progress  was  con- 
tinuous from  the  adoption  of  the  first  constitution  in 
1837,  which  provided  for  a  permanent  school  fund  and 
for  a  local  tax  in  every  district.  The  very  first  legisla- 
ture established  the  University  of  Michigan,  to  which 
students  were  admitted  in  1841.  In  all  these  states  the 
organization  of  centralized  supervision,  the  establish- 
ment of  state  normal  schools,  and  the  development  of 
state  universities  had  rounded  out  a  complete  state  sys- 
tem of  public  education  before  the  close  of  this  period. 
The  Public  School  Movement  in  the  South. — The  inter- 
est in  the  establishment  of  common  school  systems  that 
swept  over  the  East  and  the  West  after  1840  was  not 
without  influence  in  the  South.  An  increasing  num- 
ber of  prominent  men  became  interested  in  the 
movement  and  several  conventions  were  held  in  dif- 
ferent states  to  advance  it.  "Permissive  laws"  and 
"literary  funds"  resulted  in  considerable  progress 
towards  developing  a  belief  in  the  wisdom  of 
a  state  system  of  schools,  tho  only  in  North  Carolina 
was  one  actually  established  before  the  war. 
Unfortunately  after  1850  public  opinion  was  more 
and  more  concentrated  upon  the  slavery  question.  The 
destruction  of  life  and  property  during  the  war  was  a 
tremendous  setback,  and  until  Reconstruction  was  com- 
plete the  fear  of  "mixed"  schools  proved  another  great 
obstacle.  Hence,  tho  the  cause  of  education  was  much 
advanced  in  the  South  after  the  war  by  gifts  from 
northern  philanthropists  and  appropriations  from  Con- 

357 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

gress,  and  tho  a  belief  in  the  need  of  a  state  system 
of  schools  for  social  reconstruction  became  quite  wide- 
spread, that  desideratum  was  not  generally  realized  un- 
til well  into  the  next  period. 

IV.  Period  of  Educational  Expansion 

After  the  Civil  War,  and  particularly  after  Recon- 
struction, the  extension  of  systems  of  free,  public,  state- 
supported,  and  state-controlled  education  was  very  rapid. 
In  the  newer  western  states  sectarian  jealousy  and  the 
conception  of  free  public  education  as  fit  only  for  those 
who  could  not  pay  tuition  fees  never  appeared,  and  the 
first  constitution  of  each  of  those  states  provided  for  a 
complete  system  of  free  public  education  extending  from 
the  elementary  school  to  and  including  the  university. 
In  the  South  by  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
existed  in  every  commonwealth  a  state  system  of  schools. 
And  in  the  North  and  East  the  principles  of  unification 
and  centralization  had  everywhere  won  out.  The  victory 
for  centralized  state  control  was  due  to  a  great  many 
causes,  but  chief  among  them  were  the  following:  (1) 
the  appropriation  by  the  federal  government  of  millions 
of  acres  of  lands  directly  to  the  states  for  the  support 
of  elementary  schools  and  of  higher  institutions  for  agri- 
cultural and  technical  education;  (2)  the  distribution 
of  state  moneys  by  the  state  educational  departments  to 
the  local  geographical  areas  upon  condition  that  the  lat- 
ter would  meet  requirements  laid  down  by  the  former; 
(3)  the  unifying  and  standardizing  influence  of  the 
state  university,  into  whose  hands  the  control  of  sec- 
ondary education  has  in  some  states  been  placed;  (4) 
the  growing  faith  of  the  American  people  in  public  edu- 
cation as  the  agency  for  solving  the  political,  social,  and 

358 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

economic  problems  which  confront  them;  hence  the 
necessity  that  it  should  be  centralized  in  order  to  be 
efficient. 

The  evolution  that  has  been  traced  in  this  chapter 
has  resulted  in  an  American  system  of  education  whose 
organization  can  be  described  with  brevity.  The  federal 
constitution  makes  no  mention  of  education,  that  being 
an  activity  which  was  left  to  the  states  in  the  partition 
of  powers  when  the  Constitution  was  adopted  in  1788. 
The  Federal  Bureau  of  Education  exists  merely  to  col- 
lect and  disseminate  information  upon  education  and 
it  wields  a  very  great  influence  in  that  way.  Each 
state  has  an  independent  system  of  education,  but  in 
outline  and  characteristics  they  are  all  the  same.  In 
all  of  them  there  is  a  complete  system  of  elementary 
schools,  in  which  education  is  free,  universal,  and  com- 
pulsory for  seven  or  eight  years.  In  most  of  them  there 
is  provision  for  free  public  secondary  education,  altho 
only  in  a  few  is  the  locality  compelled  to  maintain  higK 
schools  for  all  the  children  of  proper  age  in  the  com- 
munity. In  all  except  some  of  the  older  commonwealths 
of  the  East  there  exists  a  state  university  wherein  free 
higher  education  is  offered  to  the  young  men  and  women 
of  the  state.  America  has  not  yet  realized  the  ideal  of 
equal  opportunity  for  all  in  its  economic,  industrial,  and 
social  life.  But  it  has  applied  it  in  education ;  for  there 
exists  an  educational  ladder  from  the  kindergarten  to 
the  university.  In  some  states  a  few  rungs  are  still 
missing,  but  they  are  rapidly  being  supplied.  In  most 
the  organization  is  complete ;  and  attention  is  now  given 
to  other  aspects  of  the  educational  problem,  such  as  the 
better  training  of  teachers,  the  improvement  and  en- 
richment of  the  curriculum,  and  the  further  extension  of 
educational  facilities. 

359 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

GERMANY 

Germany,  like  the  United  States,  is  a  national  state 
made  up  of  individual  states,  each  of  which  is  inde- 
pendent in  the  control  of  its  internal  affairs.  There  is 
no  national  system  of  education.  The  Prussian  system 
differs  in  a  number  of  respects  from  those  of  the  other 
large  states,  yet  it  is  sufficiently  typical  to  enable  the 
student  by  a  study  of  it  to  acquire  a  good  idea  of  Ger- 
man education. 

Beforms  of  Frederick  the  Great. — Tho  education  in 
Prussia  remained  under  ecclesiastical  control  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  was  there 
that  the  conception  of  education  as  the  necessary  basis 
for  social  well-being  and  political  power  first  received 
acceptance.  As  early  as  1717  Frederick  William  I  is- 
sued a  decree  to  the  effect  that,  wherever  schools  did 
exist,  children  should  be  required  to  attend  daily  in 
winter,  and  when  they  could  be  spared  from  home  in 
summer,  which  must  be  at  least  once  a  week.  The  king 
also  contributed  liberally  from  state  funds  towards  the 
establishment  of  rural  schools,  and  finding  the  chief 
difficulty  to  be  a  lack  of  intelligent  teachers,  established 
the  first  teachers'  training  school  at  Stettin.  The  sig- 
nificant thing  about  his  activities  is  that  he  assumed  it 
to  be  the  business  of  the  state  to  provide  for  elementary 
education,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  local  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities. 

But  it  was  Frederick  William's  son,  Frederick  the 
Great  (r.  1740-1786),  who  laid  the  real  foundation  of 
the  Prussian  state  system  of  elementary  education. 
Frederick  was  the  most  tolerant,  broad-minded,  and  hu- 
mane of  the  enlightened  despots  who  flourished  in  Eu- 
rope during  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

360 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

He  made  many  economic  and  social  reforms  looking 
towards  the  advancement  of  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
people,  and  showed  an  especial  interest  in  educational 
reform.  He  centralized  and  improved  secondary  educa- 
tion, encouraged  academic  freedom,  promoted  research, 
and  established  an  Academy  of  Sciences  in  Berlin.  But 
his  great  contribution  to  the  cause  of  public  education 
was  made  in  his  General  School  Regulations  of  1763. 
Among  the  most  important  provisions  were  the  follow- 
ing: (1)  all  children  were  required  to  attend  school 
from  five  to  thirteen  or  fourteen;  (2)  if  a  child  could, 
before  thirteen,  pass  the  state  tests  in  the  elementary 
branches  imposed  by  the  local  school  authority  (the  con- 
sistory), he  might  leave  school — but  only  upon  receiv- 
ing a  certificate  of  dismissal  signed  by  the  local  teacher, 
preacher,  and  inspector;  (3)  no  one  was  permitted  to 
teach  in  a  school  unless  examined  and  licensed  by  the 
local  inspector  and  preacher;  (4)  a  Sunday  continua- 
tion school  was  to  be  maintained  by  the  schoolmaster 
for  unmarried  young  people  beyond  school  age. 

These  regulations  met  with  strenuous  opposition.  The 
peasants  objected  to  the  absence  of  their  children  from 
work.  Many  teachers  were  opposed  because  they  could 
not  meet  the  new  eligibility  requirements.  The  upper 
classes  disliked  them  as  likely  to  result  in  the  spread  of 
discontent  among  the  peasantry.  The  clergy  were  not 
enthusiastic  in  enforcing  a  law  which  emphasized  state 
control.  Hence,  tho  Frederick  strove  vigorously  to  up- 
hold the  law,  it  could  not  be  enforced  everywhere. 
Nevertheless  the  General  School  Regulations  of  1763 
were  the  real  foundation  of  the  present  Prussian  system. 

From  Frederick  the  Great  to  Napoleon.— Frederick's 
code,  however,  left  the  administration  of  the  schools 
in  the  hands  of  the  clergy.  Hig  enthusiastic  educational 

361 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

adviser,  Baron  von  Zedlitz,  was  able  to  take  another 
step  in  advance  the  year  after  Frederick's  'death,  1787, 
viz.,  to  secure  the  establishment  of  the  Oberschulkol- 
legium.  This  was  a  central  board  of  school  administra- 
tion, to  replace  the  local  church  consistories,  and  Zed- 
litz intended  to  have  its  membership  composed  of  lay 
educational  experts  having  a  permanent  tenure.  But 
the  new  king,  Frederick  William  II,  was  reactionary 
and  appointed  clergymen  chiefly,  and  also  refused  to 
extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  body  to  higher  schools. 
Nevertheless  the  establishment  of  the  Oberschulkol- 
legium  represents  the  transition  from  church  adminis- 
tration of  schools  under  state  direction  to  expert  state 
administration  by  a  central  board. 

A  far  more  important  step  was  made  in  1794.  Fred- 
erick the  Great  had  appointed  a  number  of  eminent 
scholars  and  jurists  to  codify  the  Prussian  law,  and  in 
1794  the  General  Code  was  adopted.  The  twelfth  chap- 
ter of  the  code  was  devoted  to  education,  and  in  it  the 
supremacy  of  the  state  was  unequivocally  asserted.  It 
declared  that  "all  schools  and  universities  are  state 
institutions,  which  may  be  founded  only  with  the  knowl- 
edge and  consent  of  the  state ;  they  are  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  state  and  are  at  all  times  subject  to  its  ex- 
amination and  inspection."  Provision  was  made  for 
compulsory  school  attendance  and  for  state  appoint- 
ment of  teachers.  But  the  schools  were  secularized  with- 
out eliminating  religious  instruction,  for  the  code  recog- 
nize'd  the  equal  rights  of  the  Lutheran  and  Catholic 
churches  to  give  instruction  in  the  schools  to  the  chil- 
dren of  their  adherents. 

The  Reform  Adopted  after  Jena,  1806.— The  twenty 
years  between  the  death  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  the 
battle  of  Jena,  which  destroyed  the  power  of  Prussia, 

362 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

were  years  of  decline  in  power  and  influence,  due  to  the 
corruption  of  the  government,  the  selfishness  of  the 
nobility,  and  the  oppression  of  the  common  people. 
Prussia  received  a  rude  awakening  at  Jena,  and  her 
rulers  determined  to  put  their  house  in  order.  The 
army  was  reorganized,  and  the  civil  administration 
purged  of  corrupt  favorites.  But  the  great  leaders  who 
surrounded  the  king  understood  that  their  chief  reli- 
ance must  be  upon  a  new  education  aiming  to  produce 
intelligent,  patriotic  Germans.  The  Oberschitikollegium 
was  abolished,  to  get  rid  of  clerical  domination,  and  a 
" Bureau  of  Religion  and  Public  Education"  created  as 
a  section  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  Wilhelm 
von  Humboldt  was  placed  in  charge,  and  he  and  his 
immediate  successor  introduced  far-reaching  reforms, 
which  made  the  state  system  a  reality.  These  reforms, 
moreover,  affected  every  branch  of  education,  elemen- 
tary, secondary,  and  higher.  In  1809  the  University  of 
Berlin  was  founded,  to  which  some  of  the  most  eminent 
scholars  in  Germany  were  invited  as  teachers,  and  they 
stamped  it  at  once  with  the  character  which  it  has  ever 
since  maintained,  as  a  great  research  institution.  In 
1812  all  classical  schools  of  whatever  name  were  ordered 
henceforth  to  be  called  Gymnasien,  provided  they  met 
the  standard  of  attainment  set  by  the  government ;  and 
the  ' '  leaving  examination, ' '  given  by  such  schools  in  the 
presence  of  a  state  commissioner,  was  made  the  basis  of 
determining  admission  to  university  work,  and  thus  a 
preliminary  step  to  many  positions  in  the  civil  service. 
Moreover,  a  new  course  of  study  was  adopted  which 
pleased  the  adherents  of  the  new  humanism  by  empha- 
sizing the  importance  of  Greek,  and  the  adherents  of 
formal  discipline  by  giving  more  time  to  mathematics. 
In  order  to  secure  competent  teachers  for  the  Gym- 

363 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

nasien,  seminars  were  established  in  all  the  Prussian 
universities  and  searching  examinations  in  scholarship 
introduced,  which  raised  teaching  in  the  secondary 
school  to  a  profession.  In  elementary  education  great 
improvements  were  made  in  method,  content,  and  spirit 
by  the  introduction  of  Pestalozzian  teachers  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  training  schools  for  teachers.  In  1817 
the  Bureau  of  Education  was  erected  into  an  independent 
ministry ;  and  in  1825  the  organization  of  the  state  sys- 
tem of  education  was  completed  by  the  establishment  of 
provincial  school  boards,  responsible  to  the  ministry  of 
education,  which  were  ultimately  to  displace  the  church 
consistories  in  control  of  local  education.  The  schools 
were  thereby  finally  separated  from  Church  control  and 
full  state  control  was  accomplished.  However,  many  of 
the  members  of  the  school  boards  of  the  lower  adminis- 
trative areas  into  which  the  province  is  divided,  viz., 
11  governments "  and  ''districts/'  are  clergymen  and 
they  are  the  local  inspectors  of  elementary  schools. 
Many  Prussian  educators  look  forward  to  the  elimina- 
tion of  these  as  the  last  necessary  step  in  the  complete 
removal  of  ecclesiastical  influence  from  the  schools. 

The  Period  of  Reaction,  1818-1872. — Every  school  reg- 
ulation that  has  been  made  by  the  Prussian  govern- 
ment since  the  establishment  of  the  Ministry  of  Educa- 
tion in  1817  has  been  consistently  in  accord  with  state 
control  of  education.  In  almost  every  other  respect, 
however,  the  period  extending  from  that  date  to  the 
Franco-Prussian  War  was  one  of  reaction.  Johannes 
Schulze,  who  was  chairman  of  the  government  council 
for  secondary  education  from  1818-1840,  made  the  work 
and  discipline  of  the  Gymnasium  very  severe;  he  set 
the  attainment  of  the  best  as  the  standard  for  all.  The 
tendency — due  to  political  motives — was  to  crush  out 

364 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 


erything  that  pointed,  to  freedom  and  individual  in- 
itiative in  education,  such  as  would  result  from  Pesta- 
lozzian  idealism  in  elementary  education ;  even  the  over- 
sight of  the  actions  and  private  reading  of  the  pupils 
outside  of  school  hours  was  very  strict.  The  adherents 
of  formal  discipline  were  in  control  in  the  secondary 
schools;  Latin  was  given  additional  time,  and  in  the 
teaching  of  Latin  form  was  emphasized  rather  than  con- 
tent. History,  geography,  and  science  were  reduced  a 
fifth  in  time.  No  attention  was  paid  to  the  practical 
needs  of  the  German  people.  The  darkest  period  was 
after  the  Kevolution  of  1848,  when  kindergartens  were 
prohibited  as  revolutionary  institutions  and  liberal  uni- 
versity professors  subjected  to  a  system  of  espionage. 

The  Period  of  Intense  Nationalism  (1872-). — Even 
during  the  preceding  period  the  claims  of  the 
Realschulen  for  recognition  as  equal  in  standing  to  the 
Gymnasien  and  as  better  meeting  the  demands  of  mod- 
ern life  in  Germany  could  not  be  set  aside.  In  1859  the 
Realschulen  were  divided  into  two  classes;  the  one  with 
a  nine-year  course,  including  Latin  in  the  curriculum, 
was  given  full  standing  as  a  secondary  school,  and  from 
1870  its  graduates  were  admitted  to  the  universities  to 
study  science  an'd  modern  subjects;  the  other,  with  a 
six-year  course  and  optional  Latin,  admits  only  to  the 
one-year  " voluntary "  military  service  (as  a  substitute 
for  the  obligatory  two  years  required  of  those  who 
attend  only  elementary  schools).  But  after  1871  Ger- 
many became  more  and  more  industrialized  and  the 
need  of  scientific  and  technical  education  became  more 
pronounced.  Moreover,  the  intense  spirit  of  national- 
ism aroused  by  the  success  of  the  War  of  1870  made  in- 
sistent demands  for  the  emphasizing  of  German  culture 
and  the  liberalizing  of  secondary  education  to  meet  the 

365 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

needs  of  the  new  national  life.  At  the  celebrated  Berlin 
School  Conference  of  1890,  the  present  emperor  stated 
the  new  view  admirably.  ' '  First  of  all,  a  national  basis 
is  wanting  in  the  Gymnasien.  Their  foundation  must 
be  German.  It  is  our  duty  to  educate  men  to  become 
young  Germans  and  not  young  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Hence  we  must  make  German  the  basis  around  which 
everything  else  revolves. ' '  In  deference  to  the  demands 
of  the  reformers,  the  first  class  of  Realschulen  described 
above  were,  in  1882,  designated  Realgymnasien,  and 
some  schools  which  had  developed  under  the  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  as  trade  schools  extended  their  work 
to  nine  years,  were  transferred  to  the  Ministry  of  Edu- 
cation, and  became  known  as  Oberrealschulen.  Since 
1901  the  graduates  of  all  three  secondary  schools,  Gym- 
nasium, Realgymnasium,  and  Oberrealschule,  are  ad- 
mitted on  equal  terms  to  university  courses,  except  that 
students  of  divinity  must  have  completed  a  Gymnasium 
course,  in  order  to  be  acquainted  with  Greek,  and  stu- 
dents of  medicine  must  have  completed  either  a  Gym- 
nasium or  Realgymnasium  course,  in  order  to  be  famil- 
iar with  Latin. 

As  a  result  of  this  century  of  evolution  there  has 
developed  in  Prussia,  and  in  other  German  states,  a 
nationalized  school  system  organized  with  a  view  to  its 
being  the  principal  support  of  the  state.  To  uphold 
the  government,  to  preserve  the  national  culture,  and 
to  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  new  industrial  life  are  the 
aims.  Whatever  a  foreigner  may  think  of  the  German 
system  of  education,  it  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of 
spiritual  ideals  and  of  the  social  changes  that  have 
taken  place.  The  Germans  firmly  believe  in  it. 

German  Elementary  Education* — There  is  no  educa- 
tional ladder  in  Germany  such  as  exists  in  the  United 

366 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

States.  Public  elementary  education,  which  is  free, 
universal  and  compulsory,  is  given  in  the  Volkschulen 
(people's  schools).  The  course  is  eight  years  in  length, 
ending  at  fourteen,  and  does  not  lead  to  any  of  the  sec- 
ondary schools.  The  students  in  a  secondary  school 
commence  their  course  at  nine  years  of  age  and  continue 
for  nine  years.  Upon  entrance  they  begin  to  study  a 
foreign  language,  Latin  in  the  Gymnasium  and  Real- 
gymnasium,  French  in  the  Realschule.  Moreover,  at 
fourteen,  when  a  boy  in  the  Volkschule  has  completed 
his  course,  the  boy  in  the  secondary  school  will  have 
begun  a  second  language  and  advanced  to  higher  mathe- 
matics. As  neither  foreign  languages  nor  mathematics 
beyond  arithmetic  are  taught  in  the  Volkschulen,  it  is 
impossible  for  a  graduate  of  the  latter  school  to  fit  into 
any  secondary  school  even  if  he  could  afford  to  pay 
the  necessary  tuition  fees.  The  preliminary  instruction 
necessary  for  entrance  to  the  secondary  school  ordi- 
narily is  obtained  either  from  private  tutors  or  in  the 
Vorschulen  (preparatory  schools),  tho  a  considerable 
number  of  pupils  do  go  to  the  Volkschule  for  three 
years  and  then  change  over  to  a  Gymnasium  or  a  Real- 
schule. The  only  thing  for  a  graduate  of  a  Volkschule 
to  do  is  to  go  to  work  and  attend  the  FortbUdungschulen 
(continuation  schools)  and  become  skilled  in  the  trade 
or  vocation  which  he  has  entered.  The  Volkschulen,  in 
other  words,  are  intended  for  the  children  of  the  masses, 
who  are  destined  for  mechanical  pursuits.  The  second- 
ary schools  are  organized  for  the  children  of  the  wealthy 
classes,  who  look  forward  to  the  professions  and  higher 
civil  service.  It  is  in  part,  however,  an  aristocracy  of 
brains,  for  the  liberal  remission  of  fees,  and  the  special 
funds  for  the  help  of  indigent  pupils  in  some  schools 
enable  many  boys  who  show  noteworthy  ability  but 

367 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

whose  parents  are  poor  to  enjoy  the  full  advantages  of 
a  secondary  education  on  a  par  with  the  wealthy.  For 
the  middle  classes  who  cannot  afford  to  send  their  chil- 
dren thru  a  secondary  school,  but  who  for  social  rea- 
sons do  not  want  them  to  go  to  a  Volkschule,  there  have 
grown  up  Mittelschulen  (middle  schools),  which  charge 
a  fee,  have  a  course  of  nine  or  ten  years,  and  teach  a 
foreign  language  in  the  last  three  years.  The  great 
efficiency  of  the  German  Volkschule  is  due  in  part  to 
the  professionally  traine'd  teachers  who  are  certificated 
by  the  state  and  hold  permanent  positions.  But  the 
splendid  percentage  of  attendance  at  school  and  the 
length  of  the  school  year — which  is  seldom  less  than  two 
hundred  and  thirty  days — combine  to  give  a  situation 
very  favorable  for  good  work. 

German  Secondary  Education.— -A  fair  idea  of  German 
secondary  education  may  be  secured  from  the  diagram 
on  the  following  page.  In  all  three  institutions  of  second- 
ary education  the  course  of  study  covers  nine  years,  and 
the  graduates  of  each  are  admitted  upon  equal  terms  to 
university  courses  except  that,  as  already  mentioned,  ma- 
triculants in  theology  must  be  graduates  of  the  Gymna- 
sium, and  matriculants  in  medicine  must  be  graduates 
either  of  the  Gymnasium  or  Realgymnasium.  In  small 
cities  and  in  rural  districts,  institutions  are  found  which 
give  but  six  of  the  nine  years  of  the  course.  These  are 
called  Progymnasien,  Eealprogymnasien,  and  Real- 
schulen;  their  existence  is  largely  due  to  the  require- 
ment of  at  least  six  years '  residence  in  a  secondary  school 
to  be  permitted  one  year 's  voluntary  service  in  the  army 
instead  of  two  years'  conscript  service. 

The  difference  between  these  three  kinds  of  secondary 
schools  is  chiefly  one  of  curriculum,  for  in  organization, 
administration,  discipline  and  methods  of  teaching  they 

368 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

are  alike.  The  Gymnasium,  the  classical  school,  has  as 
its  fundamental  studies  Latin  and  Greek  and  is  the 
stronghold  of  the  adherents  of  formal  discipline.  It  is 
attended  chiefly  by  the  sons  of  the  aristocracy  and  pro- 


Real-   Ober- 

Gymna-     gymna-    real- 
.  sium          slum    schule 

Number  of  Week-hours  in  Nine  Years 


8HV3A  3NIN 

Optional  Same  in  all  Differentiated  ' 

rGennan..          26        28        34") 

1 

X 

S3 

Latin          ...  68        49 

Greek  36 

French  20*      29        47 

English  18        25 
History.             17        17        18 

Pro- 
gymnasium 

Real- 
progymna- 
sium 

Real, 
schule 

Geography...     9        11        14 
Mathematics.  34        42        47 
Science  18        29        36 

Writing  446 
Drawing             8        16        16 

f  Religion  19        19        19 
Gymnastics..  27        27        27 

.S^g  {it        18        18 

'  Drawing  8 
Hebrew  .         .6 

English         ..6*       .. 

Geometrical 
drawing  10        10  . 

*  Interchangeable. 

In  some  schools  one-half  the  Greek  may  be  omitted  and  Eng- 
lish, French,  and  mathematics  taken  in  place. 

Additional  writing  is  required  of  those  whose  penmanship  is 
deficient. 

After  the  second  year  singing  is  required  only  of  those  who  are 
gifted  vocally. 


fessional  classes,  and  graduation  from  it  carries  social 
prestige  which  is  highly  valued.  The  Realgymnaswm, 
the  Latin-scientific  school,  has  Latin  in  every  year,  but 
no  Greek,  the  place  of  the  latter  being  taken  by  French 
and  English,  and  more  attention  is  given  to  science  and 

369 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

mathematics.  The  OberrealscJwle,  the  scientific  school, 
eliminates  classics  entirely,  substituting  French  and 
English,  and  devotes  much  more  time  than  either  of  the 
other  two  to  mathematics  and  science.  The  social  posi- 
tion of  those  who  attend  the  Realgymnasien  and  Ober- 
realschulen  is  not  considered  so  good  as  of  those  who 
attend  the  Gymnasien.  They  are  usually  the  sons  of 
the  commercial  and  manufacturing  classes. 

It  is  evident  that  the  difference  in  the  curricula  of 
these  three  institutions  forces  a  German  parent  to  choose 
the  life  work  of  his  son  at  the  early  age  of  nine,  usually 
before  he  has  given  any  indication  of  his  special  apti- 
tudes. A  boy  who  once  enters  the  Realschule  cannot 
later  transfer  to  the  Gymnasium,  because  Latin  begins 
in  the  first  year  of  the  Gymnasium.  And  he  cannot 
transfer  from  the  Realgymnasium  to  the  Gymnasium 
after  the  third  year  because  he  will  not  have  had  Greek. 
To  overcome  this  difficulty  there  was  tried  out,  first  at 
Altona  in  1878  and  after  1892  at  Frankfort  and  else- 
where, the  plan  of  grouping  all  three  courses  in  one 
school  and  making  the  courses  the  same  for  the  first 
three  years.  The  plan  was  so  successful  that  the  Re- 
formschulen,  as  these  institutions  are  called,  have  been 
growing  rapidly  in  numbers.  Tho  the  curricula  of 
all  the  Reformschulen  are  not  identical,  French  instead 
of  Latin  is  usually  the  only  foreign  language  taught  in 
the  first  three  years.  At  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
year  the  course  divides,  one  section  taking  up  Latin, 
the  other  English.  At  the  end  of  another  two  years, 
the  Latin  section  again  divides  into  two,  one  taking  up 
Greek,  the  other  English.  The  aim  is  to  arrive  at  re- 
sults as  good  as  those  attained  in  the  regular  schools, 
and  the  adherents  of  the  plan  claim  that  the  actual  re- 
sults show  an  education  fully  on  a  par  with  that  of  the 

370 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

old-type  institution,  in  Latin  and  Greek  as  well  as  in 
the  other  studies. 

One  other  criticism  of  German  secondary  education, 
formerly  directed  against  the  attitude  maintained  to- 
wards the  education  of  girls,  no  longer  holds  true.  Co- 
education does  not  exist  in  Germany,  except  in  the  ele- 
mentary school.  Hence  there  were  gradually  established 
during  the  past  four  decades  Hohere  Mddchenschiden 
(higher  girls'  schools),  to  give  higher  education  to 
girls.  As  a  result  of  the  reorganization  of  these  schools 
which  took  place  in  1908,  a  Prussian  girl  has  now  facili- 
ties for  secondary  education  practically  equal  to  those' 
for  boys.  There  are  five  types  of  secondary  schools  for 
girls.  The  Gymnasien,  Realgymnasien  and  Oberreal- 
schulen  are  similar  to  boys'  schools  of  like  name,  but 
prepare  for  university  entrance  in  ten  years  instead  of 
nine.  The  Frauenschulen,  from  which  a  girl  normally 
graduates  at  eighteen,  prepare  for  domestic  life  and  offer 
a  wide  range  of  courses  in  domestic  arts,  domestic  sci- 
ence, and  household  economics,  in  addition  to  the  sub- 
stantial  prescribed  work  in  the  ordinary  secondary  sub- 
jects. The  Seminar  (normal  schools),  from  which  a  girl 
normally  graduates  at  twenty,  prepare  teachers  for  the 
elementary  schools  and  for  the  lower  classes  of  the 
secondary  schools.  Not  all  the  universities  of  Germany 
are  open  to  women,  and  tho  some  universities  have 
opened  their  doors  to  women  for  a  long  time  they  ad- 
mitted them  upon  sufferance  rather  than  as  a  right. 

German  Higher  Education. — The  German  university  is 
either  a  state  institution  or  must  receive  the  approval  of 
the  state  for  its  establishment.  Tho  it  charges  fees, 
it  is  supported  chiefly  by  the  state  and  controlled  largely 
by  decrees  of  the  minister  of  education.  He  also  ap- 
points the  professors,  usually,  however,  giving  heed  to 

371 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  recommendations  of  the  faculty ;  and  the  professors 
are  considered  civil  servants  with  certain  definite  privi- 
leges. The  internal  administration  of  the  university  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  university  senate,  which  is  composed 
of  representatives  of  the  various  faculties,  and  the  rec- 
tor, who  is  elected  annually  by  the  professors  of  full 
grade,  with  the  approval  of  the  minister  of  education. 
Tradition  maintains  the  organization  of  the  teaching 
staff  into  the  four  faculties  of  law,  medicine,  theology 
and  philosophy,  most  of  the  new  subjects  in  science,  soci- 
ology, and  literature  being  placed  in  the  faculty  of 
philosophy.  Lernfreiheit  (freedom  of  learning,  i.  e., 
of  election)  exists  fully  in  the  Germany  university. 
Lehrfreiheit  (freedom  of  teaching,  i.  e.,  academic  free- 
dom) has  fairly  well  characterized  it,  except  in  the  the- 
ological faculties.  During  the  past  generation  there 
iiave  grown  up  alongside  the  regular  universities,  insti- 
tutions, which,  tho  called  Technische  Hochschulen 
(technical  high  schools),  are  really  of  university  rank. 
They  conduct  the  fine  technical  education  in  engineer- 
ing, mining,  commerce,  agriculture,  and  forestry  for 
which  Germany  is  deservedly  renowned. 

FRANCE 

The  Early  Nineteenth  Century. — Despite  the  agitation 
of  rationalists  and  naturalists  in  favor  of  secular  and 
state-controlled  education  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  French  education  had  a  religious  purpose 
and  was  administered  by  the  clergy  practically  down  to 
the  eve  of  the  Revolution  of  1789.  The  National  Con- 
vention between  the  years  1792  and  1795  secularized  and 
confiscated  the  church  schools,  and  gave  attention  to 
a  great  number  of  reports  and  bills  looking  to  the  estab- 

372 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

lishment  of  a  national  and  lay  system  of  education.  But 
that  desideratum  remained  little  more  than  a  cherished 
hope,  for  with  the  exception  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Normal  School  and  the  Polytechnic  School  at  Paris  in 
1793,  comparatively  little  was  accomplished.  Napoleon 
reorganized  secondary  and  higher  education,  abolished 
the  autonomy  of  the  old  universities,  most  of  which  had 
become  moribund,  and  changed  them,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Paris,  to  mere  groups  of  faculties  whose  chief 
work  was  the  granting  of  degrees.  Then  in  1806  he 
united  all  secondary  and  higher  institutions  into  one 
corporate  body  controlled  by  the  state  and  denominated 
"The  University  of  France."  For  the  better  adminis- 
tration of  the  University,  he  divided  the  country  into 
administrative  "academies,"  each  with  a  rector  and  an 
academic  council,  having  supervision  over  the  educa- 
tional work  of  the  ' '  academy. ' '  This  centralized  system 
remained  practically  unchanged  till  1875. 

Guizot's  Law,  1833. — Napoleon  did  nothing,  however, 
to  reorganize  elementary  education.  The  Church  was 
permitted  again  to  assume  control  of  it  and  special  favor 
was  shown  to  the  Christian  Brothers,  whose  schools 
had  been  suppressed  in  1792.  This  policy,  moreover, 
was  continued  during  the  Restoration,  and  the  revolu- 
tion of  1830  found  elementary  education  almost  entirely 
under  the  control  of  the  teaching  congregations.  The 
status  of  the  lycees  and  communal  colleges  remained 
unchanged.  Fortunately  the  first  minister  of  public 
instruction  under  the  July  monarchy  was  M.  Guizot, 
who  rendered  the  cause  of  education  a  magnificent  serv- 
ice. He  immediately  attempted  to  create  a  public  opin- 
ion favorable  to  the  establishment  of  a  real  system  of 
popular  education,  and  the  Law  of  1833,  the  passage  of 
which  he  secured,  is  the  foundation  of  the  French  na- 

373 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

tional  system  of  education.  This  law  established  a  sys- 
tem of  elementary  schools  of  two  grades,  primary  and 
higher  primary,  the  former  to  be  established  in  every 
commune  and  the  latter  in  large  communes.  Tho  they 
were  to  be  supported  partly  by  fees,  they  were  to  receive 
grants  from  the  communes  and  the  state,  and  were  to 
admit  gratis  the  children  of  the  poor.  Moreover,  the 
certification  and  appointment  of  teachers  were  reserved 
to  the  state,  and  provision  was  made  for  freedom  in 
religious  instruction.  Under  this  law  there  was  a  re- 
markable increase  in  the  number  of  primary  schools,  of 
pupils  enrolled,  and  money  expended  for  elementary 
education.  Moreover,  to  secure  the  necessary  supply  of 
teachers,  some  thirty  normal  schools  were  established. 
Unfortunately  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Second  Em- 
pire to  secure  the  support  of  the  Church  resulted  in  an 
attitude  unfriendly  to  the  extension  of  state  primary 
schools  and  favorable  to  the  establishment  of  religious 
primary  schools.  Hence  when  the  empire  fell  in  1870, 
tho  considerable  advance  had  been  made  in  public 
elementary  education,  there  had  been  a  retrogression  in 
the  realization  of  the  idea  of  a  national  system  of  educa- 
tion supported  and  controlled  by  the  state. 

The  Third  Republic  (1871-).— The  Republican  lead- 
ers, led  by  Gambetta,  determined  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Republic  upon  a  basis  of  universal  educa- 
tion. In  the  decade  1871-1881  many  millions  of  francs 
were  spent  in  school  buildings  and  equipment  and  in 
the  establishment  of  manual  and  technical  schools.  In 
1881,  schools  having  been  established  in  practically  every 
commune,  primary  instruction  was  made  free,  and  in 
1882  compulsory,  between  the  ages  of  six  and  thirteen. 
To  provide  the  teachers  necessary  for  this  great  increase 
in  schools,  every  depart ement  (county)  was  required  to 

374 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

provide  a  normal  school  for  teachers  of  each  sex.  To 
make  the  schools  secular  was  a  harder  undertaking  and 
became  one  of  the  burning  questions  in  French  politics 
during  the  next  generation.  In  1881  all  teachers  were 
required  to  hold  a  state  certificate.  In  1886  clergymen 
were  forbidden  employment  as  teachers  in  the  public 
schools.  Finally,  by  the  laws  of  1902  and  1904,  all  cleri- 
cal schools  were  closed.  The  state,  therefore,  in  France 
has  almost  a  monopoly  of  elementary  education.  There 
are  some  free  schools,  i.  e.,  non-state  schools,  but  they 
must  be  taught  by  laymen.  As  a  result  of  all  the  edu- 
cational statutes  passed  since  the  beginning  of  the  Third 
Republic,  France  has  the  most  completely  centralized 
system  of  state-controlled  and  state-supported  schools  in 
western  Europe. 

French  Elementary  Education. — The  French  child  of 
three  can  enter  an  ecole  maternelle,  or  mother's  school, 
as  the  institution  similar  to  the  kindergarten  is  called, 
and  remain  there  until  he  passes  into  the  ecole  prima/ire 
(primary  school)  at  six.  The  primary  school  course  is 
by  law  compulsory  to  thirteen,  but  the  law  is  not  faith- 
fully observed  and  many  children  leave  at  twelve  and 
some  even  at  eleven.  Above  the  primary  school  is  the 
ecole  primaire  superieure  (higher  primary  school),  the 
course  in  which  is  generally  three  years  and  devoted  to 
more  practical  work,  usually  of  a  vocational  nature. 
There  are  also  continuation  schools,  supported  by  the 
various  communes  and  subsidized  by  the  state,  for  agri- 
cultural and  industrial  education.  Most  of  the  elemen- 
tary schools  are  either  boys'  schools  or  girls'  schools,  co- 
education existing  usually  only  where  it  cannot  be 
avoided. 

French  Secondary  Education. — Secondary  education  in 
France  is  given  either  in  the  lycees,  which  are  national 

375 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

schools  supported  partly  by  fees  but  chiefly  by  the  state, 
or  the  colleges  communaux  (communal  colleges),  which 
are  local  schools  maintained  partly  by  fees  but  chiefly 
by  the  commune  with  some  aid  from  the  state.  The 
communal  colleges,  tho  providing  similar  courses,  have 
not  the  same  social  standing  as  the  lycees  and  their  pro- 
fessors need  not  meet  such  high  requirements  for  ap- 
pointment. As  in  Prussia,  neither  of  these  institutions 
fits  upon  the  primary  schools,  tho  boys  may  transfer 
from  the  primary  school  at  ten,  when  the  course  of  the 
tycee  and  communal  college  usually  begins.  The  follow- 
ing diagram  will  give  some  idea  of  the  organization  and 
curriculum  of  the  French  secondary  school: 


Lycte 
7  years  or  Forms 

First  Cycle 
10-14 

f  Course  A  —  Classical 
\  Course  B  —  Scientific 

Second  Cycle 
I.  14-16 

II.  16-17 

Section  A  —  Greco-Latin 
Section  B  —  Latin-Modern  Lan- 
guage 
Section  C  —  Latin-Scientific 
Section  D  —  Scientific-Modern 
Language 

f  Mathematical  —  Emphasis  upon 
Science 
I  Philosophical  —  Emphasis  upon 
the  literary  and 
social  humani- 
L                            ties 

The  boy  enters  the  lycee  or  the  communal  college 
usually  at  ten  and  elects  at  once  whether  he  will  spend 
the  first  "cycle"  of  four  years  pursuing  classics  or  sci- 
ence. At  fifteen  he  enters  the  second  "cycle"  and,  no 
matter  which  course  he  pursued  in  the  previous  years, 
he  may  now  elect  any  one  of  the  four  courses  into  which 
the  second  ' '  cycle ' '  is  divided ;  if  he  changes  from  Greek 
to  a  modern  language  course,  or  vice  versa,  opportunity 

376 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

is  given  him  to  make  up  the  language  in  which  he  is 
deficient,  without  loss  of  time.  The  last  year  is  spent  in 
either  the  philosophical  or  the  mathematical  faculty, 
i.  e.,  in  specialization  either  in  the  humanities  or  in  sci- 
ence. This  choice  also  is  unrestricted  by  the  course 
pursued  to  that  point.  The  completion  is  crowned  by  a 
difficult  state  examination  and  the  baccalaureate  degree, 
which  is  highly  prized  as  it  is  necessary  for  entrance  to 
the  university  or  the  professions. 

Secondary  education  for  girls  hardly  existed  in 
France  before  1880,  when  the  law  creating  lycees  and 
colleges  for  women  was  adopted.  Up  to  that  year  girls 
received  their  education  chiefly  in  convents  and  private 
schools,  but  since  then  there  has  been  a  steady  increase 
in  the  number  of  public  secondary  schools  for  girls.  The 
course  in  the  girls'  lycee  is  but  five  years  in  length, 
there  being  no  classics  in  the  curriculum  and  only  ele- 
mentary mathematics  and  science.  The  places  of  these 
subjects  are  partly  taken  by  courses  in  hygiene,  draw- 
ing, music,  and  domestic  economy.  The  teachers  are 
nearly  all  women.  As  in  the  case  of  boys,  a  special 
higher  normal  school  has  been  established  to  prepare 
teachers  for  girls'  lycees. 

French  Higher  Education. — The  old  universities,  which 
had  come  down  from  the  Middle  Ages,  were  in  such  a 
moribund  state  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century 
that  Napoleon  destroyed  their  autonomous  existence 
when  he  created  the  University  of  France  in  1806.  The 
"academies"  into  which  he  divided  the  country  were 
each  to  have  university  faculties  of  letters  and  science 
near  or  at  the  principal  lycees,  and  their  chief  function 
was  to  examine  for  the  higher  licenses.  The  result  of 
this  action  was  to  reduce  French  higher  education  to 
a  low  estate  during  the  greater  part  of  the  nineteenth 

377 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

-century,  for  practically  no  change  in  the  status  of  the 
faculties  took  place  until  1885.  Then  a  law  was  passed 
to  permit  them  to  organize  a  governing  council,  to  co- 
ordinate the  different  courses,  and  to  hold  property  as 
a  corporation.  It  was  not  until  1896,  however,  that  a 
complete  reorganization  of  higher  education  took  place. 
In  that  year  the  title  of  university  was  restored,  and  a 
university  was  established  in  each  of  the  sixteen  acad- 
emies except  one.  As  yet  only  eight  of  these  are  com- 
plete universities,  that  is,  have  all  four  faculties  of  law, 
medicine,  science,  and  letters,  tho  all  have  the  facul- 
ties of  letters  and  science.  The  professors  are  appointed 
by  the  minister  of  public  instruction  upon  nomination 
by  the  members  of  the  faculty,  and  receive  their  salaries 
from  the  state.  Each  faculty  has  a  dean,  and  the  rector 
of  the  university  forms,  with  the  deans  and  other  elected 
representatives  of  each  faculty,  the  university  council, 
which  is  the  governing  body.  All  universities  are  open 
equally  to  men  and  women,  and  admit  foreign  students. 
In  addition  to  the  universities,  there  are  numerous  tech- 
nical and  professional  schools  offering  higher  educa- 
tion. 

As  already  stated,  France  has  the  most  completely 
centralized  system  of  education  in  western  Europe.  At 
the  head  of  the  entire  system  is  the  "minister  of  public 
instruction  and  fine  arts."  He  is  assisted  by  three 
directors,  one  each  for  superior,  secondary,  and  primary 
education.  At  the  head  of  each  of  the  academies  into 
which  the  country  is  divide'd,  is  a  rector  assisted  by  an 
"academic  council";  he  has  authority  over  all  three 
fields  of  education  in  the  academy,  except  as  to  the 
appointment  of  teachers.  This  is  done  by  the  prefect 
of  the  departement;  and  as  he  is  a  political  appointee, 
this  power  has  had  the  evil  effect  of  bringing  the  schools 

378 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

into  politics.  The  efficiency  of  the  entire  system  is  made 
secure  by  the  maintenance  of  a  complete  corps  of  state, 
academy,  and  district  inspectors,  assisted  by  local  school 
committees.  In  no  other  country  does  the  centralized 
administration  of  the  state  loom  so  large  in  education, 
[t  appoints  the  teachers,  fixes  the  salaries,  maintains 
the  pension  system,  controls  the  curriculum  and  methods 
>f  teaching,  and  supervises  private  instruction. 

ENGLAND 

The  Early  Nineteenth  Century. — We  saw  in  Chapter 
XVI  that  England,  more  than  any  other  great  state  of 
western  Europe,  delayed  the  organization  of  a  public 
school  system  and  relied  upon  philanthropy  to  do  the 
tvork  of  the  state  in  education.  This  was  chiefly  due  to 
;he  belief  that  education  was  not  a  function  of  the  state 
3ut  should  be  supervised  by  the  Church,  and  to  the  hesi- 
:ancy  of  the  governing  classes  in  permitting  the  educa- 
:ion  of  the  masses.  It  required  three  decades  of  agita- 
tion on  the  part  of  a  group  of  reformers  before  the 
government  took  the  first  step  towards  state  support  of 
elementary  schools.  That  step  was  one  of  the  fruits  of 
;he  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  In  1833  a  parliamentary  grant 
>f  £20,000  a  year  was  made,  to  be  distributed  thru 
the  two  religious  educational  societies,  the  National  So- 
ciety and  the  British  and  Foreign  Society,  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  aiding  in  building  schoolhouses  for  which 
subscriptions  had  already  been  collected.  From  that 
time  until  the  Act  of  1870,  the  two  societies  remained 
the  media  for  the  distribution  of  the  state  grants  and 
thereby  acquired  a  vested  interest  which  greatly  ham- 
pered the  development  of  a  state  system,  the  National 
Society,  representing  the  Established  Church,  being 

379 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

particularly  opposed  to  it.  But  the  reformers  main- 
tained an  incessant  agitation,  founding  public  school 
societies  thruout  the  country,  and  compelling  the 
government  to  take  more  and  more  decisive  steps  in  the 
direction  of  a  state  system  of  schools.  In  1839  the 
annual  grant  was  increased  to  £30,000  and  a  special 
committee  of  the  Privy  Council  on  education  established. 
This  resulted  in  a  step  towards  state  control,  for  the 
new  committee  insisted  that,  in  order  to  share  in  the 
funds,  a  school  must  be  open  to  government  inspection. 
During  the  next  thirty  years  a  number  of  parliamen- 
tary committees  were  appointed  to  investigate  the  con- 
dition of  popular  education,  and  in  almost  every  case  an 
investigation  was  followed  by  increased  governmental 
interest  and  control.  One  action,  adopted  in  1861,  and 
having  the  good  intention  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of 
the  schools,  introduced  a  principle  that  had  unfortunate 
consequences,  viz.,  "payment  by  results."  According 
to  this  principle,  the  grant  of  state  funds  to  a  school 
depended  upon  the  results  shown  by  its  pupils  in  the 
governmental  examinations.  This  provision,  which  has 
only  recently  been  abandoned,  had  the  effect  of  formal- 
izing instruction,  as  the  schools  naturally  worked  almost 
solely  towards  the  examinations. 

The  Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870. — Finally  in 
1870,  largely  as  the  result  of  the  great  extension  of  the 
franchise  in  1868,  Parliament  passed  a  bill  by  means  of 
which  a  system  of  elementary  schools  was  established,  to 
be  organized,  supported,  and  controlled  by  the  state. 
The  bill  provided  that,  wherever  there  was  a  deficiency 
in  school  accommodations,  the  voters  of  the  community 
might  elect  a  school  board  to  maintain  an  elementary 
school.  These  "board"  schools  were  to  be  supported 
partly  by  local  rates  (taxes),  which  must  equal  the 

380 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

government  grant.  The  "voluntary"  schools,  i.  e.,  the 
church  schools,  were  to  share  in  the  government  grant 
but  not  in  the  local  rates;  and  the  government  grants 
to  all  schools  were  to  depend  upon  the  reports  of  the 
government  inspectors.  The  hoard  schools  were  per- 
mitted to  give  only  undenominational  religious  instruc- 
tion, and  all  schools  were  required  to  put  religious  in- 
struction either  at  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  the  school 
session  in  order  that  a  pupil  might  take  advantage  of 
the  "conscience  clause"  of  the  act,  according  to  which 
any  pupil  might  withdraw  whose  parents  objected  to 
the  kind  of  religious  instruction  given.  This  splendid 
law,  which  finally  gave  England  a  real  basis  for  a  na- 
tional system  of  education,  had  nevertheless  an  almost 
fatal  defect,  i.  e.,  the  compromise  which  permitted  the 
sectarian  voluntary  schools  to  receive  government  aid. 
It  was  inevitable  that  the  competition  between  the  two 
kinds  of  schools  would  result  in  bitterness,  a  bitterness 
the  intensity  of  which  it  is  hard  for  Americans  to  under- 
stand. During  the  next  generation  both  kinds  of  schools 
were  greatly  improved  by  various  parliamentary  acts, 
and  elementary  education  was  made  wholly  free,  and 
compulsory  up  to  thirteen.  A  great  step  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  real  national  system  was  taken  in  1899,  when  a 
central  board  of  education  was  established  to  take  over 
the  powers  of  all  official  bodies  that  had  hitherto  shared 
in  the  control  of  elementary  education.  The  privilege 
of  local  rates  which  the  board  schools  enjoyed  enabled 
them  to  make  phenomenal  progress.  By  1902  they  had 
as  many  pupils  as  the  voluntary  schools,  and  more  and 
better  teachers,  and  were  able  to  spend  a  greater  amount 
of  money  per  pupil.  This  progress  was  bitterly  envied 
by  the  Established  Church,  and  in  return  for  its  sup- 
port in  the  parliamentary  election  of  1895  the  Conserva- 

381 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

tive  party  promised  to  provide  better  maintenance  for 
the  voluntary  schools. 

The  Education  Act  of  1902.— In  1902  the  Conserva- 
tives were  able  to  push  thru  Parliament  an  act 
whereby  the  voluntary  schools  were  permitted  to  share 
the  local  school  rates  with  the  board  schools.  All  schools 
were  made  part  of  one  comprehensive  system,  and  the 
administration  of  all  schools  was  centralized  in  the 
county  councils  for  rural  districts  and  in  the  munici- 
pal borough  councils  for  cities.  But  the  immediate  su- 
pervision of  the  individual  schools  was  placed  in  a  local 
board  of  managers,  which  in  the  case  of  the  voluntary 
schools  was  to  consist  of  two  members  appointed  by  the 
council  and  four  selected  by  the  denomination.  The 
new  system  thus  favored  the  Established  Church,  but 
it  had  the  good  effect  of  placing  all  elementary  schools 
under  the  administration  of  public  officials,  the  coun- 
cils, with  the  National  Board  of  Education  in  general 
control.  Another  excellent  provision  was  that  which 
required  the  councils  to  support  instruction  in  subjects 
beyond  the  elementary  grade.  This  gave  an  impetus  to 
the  establishment  of  secondary  schools  under  public 
control  and  support.  Nevertheless,  the  Act  of  1902 
aroused  intense  resentment  among  the  nonconformists, 
and  it  was  one  of  the  great  issues  in  the  political  cam- 
paign of  1905.  When  the  Liberals  were  returned  to 
power,  they  at  once  passed  thru  the  House  of  Com- 
mons a  bill  which  would  remedy  the  defect  in  the  Act 
of  1902  by  bringing  all  schools  under  the  complete  con- 
trol of  the  public  authorities.  The  bill,  however,  was 
rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords  and  elementary  educa- 
tion in  England  is  today  organized  under  the  provisions 
of  the  Act  of  1902.  It  is  generally  admitted,  however, 
that  the  condition  is  an  anomalous  and  temporary  one 

382 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

which  will  probably  be  remedied  by  legislation  in  the 
near  future. 

English  Elementary  Education. — The  elementary  edu- 
cation of  an  English  child  may  begin  at  the  age  of  five 
in  the  infant  school.  He  may  remain  there  until  eight, 
engaged  in  activities  similar  to  those  of  the  kindergar- 
ten, and  learning  also  the  rudiments  of  reading,  writing, 
and  counting.  Compulsory  attendance  is  required 
everywhere  in  England  under  twelve,  and  local  school 
boards  are  permitted  to  raise  the  age  limit  to  fourteen. 
Unfortunately  provision  is  made  for  partial  exemption 
from  school  attendance  after  eleven  for  children  engaged 
in  agriculture  and  after  twelve  for  children  engaged  in 
industry.  There  is  a  strong  protest,  however,  against 
the  existence  of  '  *  half-timers, ' '  and  it  is  hoped  the  prac- 
tice will  soon  pass  away.  Before  the  Act  of  1902  higher 
grade  board  schools  were  established  in  many  of  the 
larger  cities,  which  competed  with  the  endowed  ''pub- 
lic" and  "grammar"  schools  and  private  schools  in  the 
field  of  secondary  education.  But  in  1900  the  Court  of 
Appeals  handed  down  the  "Cockerton  Judgment,"  for- 
bidding the  use  of  local  rates  for  other  instruction  than 
elementary,  and  the  Board  of  Education  thereupon 
passed  a  regulation  making  fifteen  the  upper  age  limit 
for  pupils  in  these  higher  elementary  schools.  These 
schools,  therefore,  continue  to  exist  with  a  three-year 
curriculum,  intended  for  children  between  twelve  and 
fifteen,  which  emphasizes  vocational  education  in  addi- 
tion to  offering  the  general  subjects.  They  have  grown 
in  numbers  very  slowly,  having  har'dly  two  per  cent 
of  the  children  above  twelve  years  in  them.  Large  num- 
bers of  children  who  leave  school  at  the  close  of  the 
compulsory  attendance  age,  enter  the  evening  continua- 
tion schools ;  but  these  are  insufficient  in  number,  They 

383 


THE  HISTOKY  OF  EDUCATION 

form  a  link  between  the  elementary  schools  and  the  spe- 
cialized schools  of  science  and  art  which  are  maintained 
by  special  grants  of  the  national  government. 

English  Secondary  Education. — Until  the  commence- 
ment of  the  twentieth  century  practically  no  provision 
was  made  for  secondary  education  for  the  children  of  the 
middle  and  laboring  classes.  Secondary  education  was 
in  the  control  of  the  public  schools,  the  grammar  schools, 
and  the  ' '  private  adventure ' '  schools.  The  English ' '  pub- 
lic" schools  are  the  seven  endowed,  aristocratic  board- 
ing schools,  viz.,  Winchester,  Eton,  Shrewsbury,  West- 
minster, Rugby,  Harrow,  and  Charterhouse,  and  the  two 
similar  day  schools,  St.  Paul's  and  Merchant  Taylors', 
in  London.  They  are  all  over  three  hundred  years  old, 
are  attended  by  the  social  elite  of  England,  and  pre- 
pare directly  for  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  The  "gram- 
mar ' '  schools  are  also  endowed  schools  scattered  thruout 
the  country,  many  of  as  ancient  lineage  as  the  public 
schools  and  pursuing  similar  work.  The  "private  ad- 
venture" schools  sprang  up  in  large  numbers  after  the 
passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  They  were  usually 
founded  by  stock  companies  and  were  the  first  second- 
ary schools  to  introduce  a  "modern  side,"  to  compete 
with  the  "classical  side."  They  have  done  very  fine 
work ;  they  were  practically  the  first  institutions  to  pro- 
vide secondary  e'ducation  for  girls.  These  three  kinds 
of  schools  are  private,  receive  children  at  a  compara- 
tively early  age,  from  seven  to  ten,  and  keep  them  until 
they  are  fourteen,  sixteen,  or,  in  the  case  of  the  public 
and  some  of  the  grammar  schools,  until  they  are  eighteen 
years  of  age.  The  Act  of  1902  provided  for  the  estaj)- 
lishment  of  public  secondary  schools  by  the  local  au- 
thorities, and  the  latter  have  undertaken  the  task  with 
enthusiasm.  In  order  to  encourage  secondary  educa- 

384 


NATIONAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION 

tion,  the  national  grants  are  given  to  any  schools,  pri- 
vate or  public,  which  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
Board  of  Education.  This  means  that  the  curriculum, 
length  of  school  term,  and  hours  of  attendance  must 
meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Board,  that  no  religious 
tests  are  demanded  by  the  school,  and  that  the  school  is 
open  to  the  Board's  inspection  at  any  time.  Moreover, 
twenty-five  per  cent  of. .the  annual  admissions  to  any 
secondary  school  receiving  governmental  grants  must 
be  from  public  elementary  schools.  In  1910  there  were 
altogether  1,037  secondary  schools  receiving  government 
grants,  of  which  325  were  public  schools  maintained  by 
local  authorities. 

English  Higher  Education. — Until  almost  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century  university  instruction  in  Eng- 
land was  given  only  in  the  ancient  seats  of  learning, 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  These  have  been  slowly  mod- 
ernized by  the  dropping  of  theological  requirements 
for  a  degree,  the  introduction  of  laboratory  courses  in 
science,  the  establishment  of  colleges  for  women  (who 
are  admitted  to  the  university  courses  tho  not  granted 
a  degree) ,  and  by  the  general  attempt  to  diffuse  higher 
education  thru  university  extension  courses.  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  still  remain  the  strongholds  of  social 
and  educational  conservatism,  however.  During  the 
past  generation  there  have  grown  up  municipal  uni- 
versities better  adjusted  to  modern  needs,  progressive  in 
spirit  and  purpose,  granting  degrees  equally  to  men  and 
women,  and  closely  articulated  with  the  municipal  pub- 
lic schools.  They  have  been  established  and  are  chiefly 
supported  by  the  municipal  governments  of  Birming- 
ham, Manchester,  Leeds,  Liverpool,  and  Bristol;  but 
they  also  receive  parliamentary  grants  and  gifts  from 
private  sources.  The  University  of  London,  which  was 

385 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

established  in  1836  as  an  examining  body  only,  became 
in  1901  a  teaching  institution;  it  consists  of  a  federa- 
tion of  twenty-six  colleges  and  schools,  organized  in 
eight  faculties,  and  well  articulated  with  the  municipal 
schools.  Altogether  the  progress  made  in  England  to 
provide  for  secondary  and  higher  education  in  recent 
years  is  distinctly  encouraging. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Education  on  England,  France, 
Germany  and  the  United  States. 

BROWN,  E.  E.    Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Chaps.  XXXVIII-XLIL 

DEXTER,  E.  G.    History  of  Education  in  the  United  States. 

FARRINGTON,  F.  E.     French  Secondary  Schools. 

.     The  Public  Primary  System  of  France. 

GRAVES,  F.  P.  A  History  of  Education.  Vol.  Ill,  Chaps. 
IV,  VI,  VIII,  IX. 

HINSDALE,  B.  A.  Horace  Mann  and  the  Common  School 
Revival. 

MONROE,  PAUL.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education. 
Pp.  729-739. 

MONTMORENCY,  J.  E.,  BE.  State  Intervention  in  English  Edu- 
cation. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Edu- 
cation. Chaps.  X-XII. 

PAULSEN,  F.    German  Education. 

.     The  German  Universities. 

RUSSELL,  J.  E.     German  Higher  Schools. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

However  small  may  be  the  library  of  a  college  department 
of  education,  or  of  a  normal  school,  the  following  list  of  books 
is  the  irreducible  minimum  with  which  to  conduct  an  intro- 
ductory course  in  the  History  of  Education: 
BOYD,  "W.     The    Educational    Theory    of    Rousseau.     Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.    1911.     The  best  book  on  the  sub- 
ject at  present. 

CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  Syllabus  in  History  of  Education. 
Macmillan  Co.  1904.  Exhaustive  bibliography  upon 
every  topic  in  the  history  of  education  with  admira- 
ble suggestions  as  to  proper  sequence  of  reading. 
DAVIDSON,  THOMAS.  Aristotle  and  the  Ancient  Educational 
Ideals.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  1896.  Portrays  the 
historical  development  of  Greek  education. 
DEWEY,  JOHN  AXD  EVELYN.  Schools  of  Tomorrow.  E. 
P.  Button  &  Co.  1916.  Gives  an  admirable  exposition 
of  the  tendencies  and  movements  current  in  education 
today. 

GRAVES,  FRANK  P.  A  History  of  Education.  (Three  vol- 
umes.) Macmillan  &  Co.  1910.  Another  work  of  su- 
perior merit  and  standard  character. 

LAURIE,  S.  S.  History  of  Educational  Opinion  Since  the 
Renaissance.  The  Cambridge  University  Press.  1905. 
Gives  another  view  of  the  men  treated  by  Quick. 

.     Pre-Christian  Education.     Longmans,   Green  &  Co. 

1909.     An  excellent  review  of  ancient  education. 
MISAWA,    TADASU.      Modern    Educators    and    Their    Ideals. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.     1909.     A  third  view  of  the  men 
treated  by  Quick.     Particularly  good  on  the   German 
educators. 

387 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

MONROE,  PAUL  (Editor).  Cyclopedia  of  Education.  Mac- 
millan  Co.  1914.  A  mine  of  information  upon  every 
phase  of  education.  Indispensable. 

.  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education.  Macmillan 

Co.  1908.  This  splendid  pioneer  work  will  long  retain 
its  standard  character. 

PARKER,  S.  C.  A  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Educa- 
tion. Ginn  &  Co.  1912.  It  is  hard  to  use  words  too  flatter- 
ing to  describe  this  admirable  book.  The  books  listed 
above  under  the  names  of  Graves,  Monroe,  and  Parker, 
used  as  reference  works  in  connection  with  this  text- 
book, will  enable  the  student  to  pursue  an  excellent  in- 
troductory course, 

QUICK,  B.  H.  Educational  Beformers.  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.  1896.  A  very  fair  estimate  of  the  work  and  in- 
fluence of  the  chief  educational  reformers  since  the  Re- 
naissance. 

RASHDALL,  H.  The  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  Oxford  Clarendon  Press.  1895.  An  excel- 
lent description  of  educational  conditions  in  the  Middle 


In  addition  to  references  in  these  works,  the  few  best  books 
on  the  subject  matter  of  each  chapter  are  given  at  its 
close.  Many  of  the  topics  in  the  history  of  education  are  of 
general  interest  and  sometimes  of  a  controverted  nature.  The 
student  may  consult  with  profit  the  Catholic  and  Jewish  En- 
cyclopedias, and  the  Encyclopedia  Britanniea,  as  well  as  the 
Cyclopedia  of  Education,  upon  such  topics. 

Students  who  feel  the  need  of  a  larger  knowledge  of  the 
historical  background  of  educational  development  should  con- 
sult the  following: 
ADAMS,  G.  B.    Civilisation  During  the  Middle  Ages.    Charles 

Scribner>s  Sons.    1894. 
ROBINSON,  J.  H.    History  of  Western  Europe.     Ginn  &  Co. 

1903. 
WEST,  W.  M.    The  Ancient  World.    Allyn  &  Bacon.    1904. 


PRONOUNCING  GLOSSARY 


An  dro  ni'cus 

An  to  m'nus 

A  qui'nas 

Archime'des-(k) 

As'cham  -  (k) 

A  ver'ro  es 

A  vi  cen'na  -  (s) 

Ba'sedow-  (do) 

Bo  e'thi  us 

Caes  a  re'a 

Cas  si  o  do'rus 

catechet'ical-(k) 

cat  e  chu'men  al  -  (k) 

Chrys  o  16'ras 

Col'et 

Co  per'ni  cus 

Cor  de'ri  us 

di  das  ca  le'um 

di'ocese-  (sis) 

Do  na'tus 

e  pheb'os 

E  phe  sus 

E  pi  cu  re'an 

E  pi  cu'rus 

E  ra  tos'the  nes 

Eri'gena-  (j) 

Fe  ne  Ion' 

Galile'o 

Oar  gan'tu  a 


Guyenne'-  (geen) 

Gym  na'si  en  -  (hard  g) 

Hi  er  o  nym'ian 

I  soc'ra  tes 

lit  te  ra'tor 

Loyo'la 

mai  eu'tic  (mi) 

Mai  pi'ghi  -  (hard  g) 

Me  lanch'thon  -  <k) 

mis'si  do  mi  ni'  ci 

Pa  cho'mi  us  -  (k) 

pales'tra 

Pan  ta'gru  el 

ped  a  go'gus 

Per'ga  mum 

Pestaloz'zi-  (lot  si) 

Pe'trarch 

Phil  an  thro  pin'um 

Pris'cian  -  (sh) 

Raba'nus 

Ra'belais-(Iay) 

Reuch'lin  -  (oy) 

rhe'tor 

Bit'ter  a  ka  de'mi  en 

to'ga  viri'lis 

Tor  ri  cel'li  -  (ch) 

Ur'su  line 

Y  ver  don' 


389 


INDEX 


Abelard,  96,  99 

Academy,  in  America,  164,  337 
in  England,  163  f . 
of  Franklin,  164,  283 
of  Plato,  45 

11  Address   to   Philanthropists '  * 
(Basedow),  216 

Agassiz,  Louis,  282 

Agricola,  121 

Albertus  Magnus,  107 

Alcuin,  85,  87 

Alfred  of  England,  86 

American    Journal    of    Educa- 
tion  (Barnard),  353 

Andronicus,  Livius,  56 

Annual        Reports         (Horace 
Mann),   349 

Anselm,  95 

Antioch,  72 

Aquinas,  94,  97,  98,   105,  107, 
143 

Archimedes,  48 

Aristotle,   39  f.,   105,    143,   165, 
183 

Ascham,  127 

Atheneunij  61 

Augustine,  73 

Averroes,  93  f. 

Avicenna,  92,  105 

Bacon,  Francis,  158,  168,  169  f ., 

272 
Barnard,  Henry,  242,  352  f. 


Basedow,  216  f. 

Basil,  72,  79 

Bell,  Andrew,  291 

Benedict,  St.,  79  f. 

BJtankenburg,  258 

Blow,  Susan,  266 

Board  schools,  301,  380 

Boethius,  81,  87,  105 

Boston  Latin   school,  128 

Boyle,  166 

Brethren  of  the  Common  Life, 

120  f. 
British    and    Foreign    Society, 

291 

Brothers  of  Sincerity,  92 
Billow,  Baroness  von,  264 
Burgdorf,  229 
Burgher  schools,  114 

Caesarea,  72 
Calvin,  134,  138 
Capella,  Martianus,  81 
Carter,  James  G.,  343 
Cassiodorus,  81 
Catechetical  schools,  71 
Catechumenal  schools,  70 
Cathedral  schools,  73 
Chantry  schools,  114 
Charlemagne,  85  f. 
Charles  VIII,  122 
Chivalry,  88  f. 
Christian  Brothers,  149  f . 
Chrysoloras,  Manuel,  119 


391 


INDEX 


Church  Fathers,  72  f. 

Cicero,  57,  64,  124 

Ciceronianism,  118,  146 

" Ciceronians,  The/'  124 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  71,  72 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  338 

Cockerton  Judgment,  383 

Colet,  127 

College  de  France,  122 

College   de  Guyenne,   122 

College  of  William  and  Mary, 
332 

Colleges   Communaux,   376 

"Colloquies,"  124 

Combe,  George,  281 

Comenius,  151.  158,  171  f. 

Common  School  Journal,  350 

"Conduct  of  Schools,"  149  f. 

"Conduct   of   the  Understand- 
ing, The,"  191 

Constantius  Africanus,  99 

Copernicus,  116,  165 

Corderius,  138 

"Corpus  Juris  Civilis,"   105 

Council  of  Trent,  140 

Court  schools,  120 

Cousin,  Victor,  241 
his  "Report,"  241,  242 

Culture-epoch  theory,  250,  252 

Cuvier,  272 

Darwin,  272,  282 
"Decretum"    (Gratian),  105 
Defectives,  education  of,  314f. 
De  Garmo,  Charles,  253 
"De  Oratore,"  57 
Descartes,  166 
Dewey,    John,    224,    246,    267, 

319  f. 

Didascale'um,  20 
Diderot,  196 


District  schools,  336,  342 
Dominicans,  107 
Donatus,  63,  105 
Double  translation,  127 
Duns  Scotus,  107 

Edessa,  72 

"Education"    (Spencer),    273, 
274  f. 

"Education    of    Children,     On 
the,"  162 

"Education  of  Girls,  On  the," 
152 

"Education  of  Man,"  257 

Edwards,  Ninian  W.,  356 

"Elementarie,"  168 

"Elementarwerk,  Das,"  217 

Elementary  education,  in  Eng- 
land,   383  f. 
in  France,  375 
in  Germany,  366  f. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  278,  282 

"Emile,"  205,  206  f. 

Encyclopedists,  196 

Epicurus,   school  of,   45 

Erasmus,   122,   123  f.,   127,   128 

Eratosthenes,  48 

Erigena,  Johannes  Scotus,  87 

Ernest    the    Pious,    of    Gotha, 
152 

"Essay  on  the  Human  Under- 
standing," 190 

"Ethics"    (Aristotle),  39 

Euclid,  48 

Exile,  9 

Exodus,  8 

Faculty  psychology,  183,  246 
Fellenberg,  235,  288  f. 
FSnelon,  152 
Fichte,  239 


392 


INDEX 


Formal    discipline,    183  f. 
Forster  Act,  295,  301,  380 
Fortbildungsctwle,   367 
Franciscans,  107 
Francke,    178,   179,   288 
Frauenschulen,  371 
Frederick  the  Great,  360 
Frederick  William  I,  360 
Frederick  William  II,  362 
Free  School  Society,  338 
Froebel,  255  f . 
Fiirstenschulen,  125 

Galen,  105 
Galileo,  165 
Galloway,  Samuel,  356 
Gambetta,  298,  374 
"Gargantua  and  Pantagruel," 

159 

Gary  schools,  317 
General     School     Regulations, 

361 

Gifts,  262 
Gild  schools,  114 
Goethe,  187 
Gotha,  152 
Grammaticus,     school    of     the, 

57,  58 
Granada,  93 
Gratian,  155 
Gray,  Asa,  282 
•'Great  Didactic,"  172 f. 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  72 
Guizot,  373  f. 
Gymnasium,  German,  125,  363, 

365 
Greek,  23 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  252,  323 
Harris,    William    T.,    2651 
Harvey,  166 


Hecker,  179,  278 
Helvetius,  196 
Henry  VIII,  127 
Herbart,   224,  243,  244  f. 
Herbart  Society,  353 
Herder,  187 
Hieronymians,  121 
Higher  education,  in  England, 
385 

in  France,  377  f. 

in  Germany,  371  f. 
Hippocrates,  105 
Hofwyl,  236,  288 
Home     and     Colonial     School 

Society,  295 
Homer,  23,  118 
"How    Gertrude    Teaches   Her 

Children, "  229 
Humanism,  115  f. 
Humanism,  the  new,  187 
Humboldt,  William  von,  363 
Huxley,  277 

Induction,  170  f. 
Infant  School  Society,  242 
Infant  schools,  242,  294,  346 
Institutes  of  the  Christian  Re- 
ligion, 134 
Irnerius,  99 
Isidore  of  Seville,  82 
Isocrates,  43,  44 

James,  William,  322 

Jansenists,  146  f. 

"Janua  Linguarum,"  175 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  297,  341 

Jerome,  73,  79 

Jesuits,  140  f. 

Jews,  7f. 

Joshua  ben  Gamala,  11 

"Journal   of   a   Father/'   226 


393 


INDEX 


Judd,  C.  H.,  322 
Justinian,  47 

Kant,  Immanuel,  245 
Keilhau,  257 
Kempis,  Thomas  a,  122 
Kepler,  165 

Kindergarten,  258,  260  f. 
Knox,  138 

La  Fontaine,  149 

Lagrange,  279 

Lamarck,  272 

Lancaster,  291 

Laplace,  279 

La  Salle,  149  f . 

Law,  Jewish,  9  f . 

Law  of  1647    (Massachusetts), 
334 

"Laws,  The,"  35 

Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  55, 
56 

Leibnitz,  166 

"Leonard  and  Gertrude,"  227 

Lessing,  187 

"Letter,"  of  Luther,  135 

"Liberal    Education    of    Chil- 
dren," 124 

Library,  at  Alexandria,  47   f. 
Temple  of  Peace,  61 
Vatican,  116 

Liebig,  279 

Lilly,   128 

Litterytor,  school  of  the,  57 

" Little  schools"  of  Port  Boyal, 
147  f. 

Locke,  158,  190  f.,  272 

Louis  XIV,  147 

lyoyola,  140  f . 

Ludus,  55 

Luther,  134  f. 


Lycee,  279,  375  f . 
Lyceum,  45 
Lyell,  272 

McMurry,  Charles,  253 
McMurry,  Frank,  253 
Madchenschulen,  371 
Malpighi,  166 
Mann,   Horace,   242,    284,   343, 

349  f. 

Mantua,  school  of,  119 
Maternal  schools,  294,  375 
Maurus,  Rabanus,  87 
Mayo,  Charles,  241,  295 
Mayo,  Elizabeth,  241 
Melanchthon,  136 
Merchant  Taylors'  School,  384 
Method,  Socratic,  33 
Method- Whole,  249  f. 
"Methodenbuch,  Das,"  217 
Mills,  Caleb,  356 
Milton,  157,  159  f. 
Mittelschule,    368 
Mohammedanism,  92 
Monastery,  Canterbury,   84 

Cluny,  84 

Fulda,  84,  87 

Monte  Cassino,  79;  84 

Eeichenau,   84 

St.  Gall,  84 

Tours,  84,  87 

Wearmouth,  84 

Yarrow,  84 

York,  84 

Monastic  schools,  81  f. 
Monitorial  schools,  290,  346 
Montaigne,  158,  161  f. 

essays  of,  162 
Montesquieu,  196- 
Montessori,  315f. 
More,  Thomas,  127,  138 


394 


INDEX 


Morrill  Act,  282 

"Mother    Play    and    Nursery 

Songs/ '  262 
Moving  school,  335 
Mulcaster,  168  f. 
Museum,  at  Alexandria,  48 

Napier,  166 

Napoleon,  373 

National  Education  Association, 

243 

National  Society,  291 
Nations,  in  the  universities,  101 
Naturalism,  207  f. 
Natural  punishments,   209,  277 
Negative  education,  208 
Nestorius,  92 
Neuhof,  226 

"New  Atlantis,  The,"  169 
"New  Heloise,  The,"  206 
New  learning,  117,  122 
Newton,    166,    180,   280 
Nisibis,  72,  92 
Nominalism,  95 
"Novum  Organum,"  170 

Oberlin,  Jean  F.,  294 
Oberrealschule,  278,  366 
OberschulJcollegium,  362,  363 
Occam,  William  of,  97,  107 
Occupations,  of  Froebel,  262 
Oratorians,  279 
"Orbis  Pictus,"  176,  217 
"Order  of  Study,"  124 
"Organon,"  42,  105,  170 
Origen  of  Alexandria,  71,  72 
Oswego  movement,  242  f . 
"Outlines  of  Educational  Doc- 
trine," 246 
Owen,  Robert,  294 
Oxford,  100,  385 


Pachomius,  79 

Palace  school,  85,  87 

Palestra,  20  f. 

Pancratium,  24 

Pansophia,  170,  172,  173 

Pantaenus,  71 

Parish  schools,  138 

Parker,  Colonel  F.  W.,  255,  267 

Pascal,  149 

Peabody,  Elizabeth  P.,  265 

Pedagogium,  179 

"Pedantry,  On,"  162 

Pennsylvania  Society,  340 

Pentathlon,  22 

Pestalozzi,  149,  218,  224,  225  f ., 

272,  277 

Peter  the  Lombard,  98,  99,  105 
Petrarch,  117,  118  f. 
Philanthropinum,  217,  288 
Philanthropy       in       education, 

288  f. 

Philo  the  Jew,  48 
Philosophical    schools,    Athens, 

45  f. 

Pietists,  178 
Plato,  34  f . 
"Politics,"  39 
Port  Royal  schools,  147  f. 
"Positions,"  168 
"Praise  of  Folly,"  124 
Prelection,  144  f. 
Princes '  schools,  125 
Priscian,  63,  105 
Progymnasium,  368 
Prophets,  9 
Protagoras,  27  f.,  32 
Psychological  movement,  224  f. 
Ptolemy,  47,  105 
Public  school  revival,  348 
Public  School  Society,  296,  338, 

355 


395 


INDEX 


Public    schools,    English,    128,      Rollin,  149 


281,  384 


Quadrivium,  82 
Quintilian,  60,  64  f. 

Eabanus  Maurus,  87 
Kabelais,  157,  159 
Eacine,  149 
Raikes,  Eobert,  290 
' '  Eatio  Studiorum,' '  141  f . 
Rationalism  in  education,  189  f . 
Realgymnasium,  278,  366 
Eealism,  157  f. 

in  contrast  with  Nominalism, 
95 

humanistic,  159  f. 

sense-,  165  f. 

social,  160  f. 
Bealprogymnasium,  368 
Eealschulen,  179,  278,  365 
Eecitation,  five  formal  steps  of, 

249 
Reformation,  132  f. 

in  England,  138  f . 
Eeformschule,  370 
Rein,  Wilhelm,  252  f . 
Renaissance,  115  f. 

in  England,  127  f. 

in  France,  122 

in  Italy,  117  f . 

in  Teutonic  countries,   122  f. 
Rensselaer    Polytechnic    Insti- 
tute, 282 
Report    of    Royal    Commission, 

128,  186 

"Republic,  The,"  34,  37 f. 
Reuchlin,  121 

Rhetor,  school  of  the,  57,  60 
Rhetorical  schools,  Athens,  44  f . 
Eitterakademien,  163,  178 


Roscellinus,  95 
Rousseau,  203  f. 

St.  Cyran,  Abbe*  de,  147 
St.  Paul's  School,  127  f.,  384 
Salamanca,  93 
Salzmann,  218 
Saxony  school  plan,  137 
Schiller,  187 
Scholarchs,  46 
Scholasticism,  94  f . 
"Scholemaster,  The,"  127 
Schulze,  Johannes,  362 
" Science  of  Education,"  245 
Secondary    education,    in    Eng- 
land, 384 

in  France,  375  f. 

in  Germany,  368  f . 
Seguin,  Edouard,  315 
Seminar,  371 

"Sermon"  (Luther),  135 
Seven  liberal  arts,  82 
Seventh  Annual  Report  (Horace 

Mann),  242,  351 
Seville,  93 
Sheldon,  E.  A.,  242 
"Sic  et  Non,"  96 
"Social  Contract,"  205,  206 f. 
Society  of  Jesus.     See  Jesuits 
Sociological  movement,  286  f. 
Socrates,  32  f .,  43 
Sophists,  27-£,_4ViaL, 
Spartan  education,  16,  37 
Spencer,     Herbert      252,     273, 

274  f. 

S.  P.  C.  K.,  289 
S.  P.  G.,  290 
Stanz,  228 
Stoics,«45 
Strassburg,  126 


396 


INDEX 


Studium  generate,  101 

Sturm,  126 

Suetonius,  64 

"Summa  Theologiae,"  97,  98, 

105 

Sunday  School  Society,  290 
Sunday  schools,  290,  346 
Surveys,  318 
Syllabaries,  233 

Tacitus,  64 

Talmud,  11,  12 

Technische  Hochschulen,  372 

Tertullian,  73 

Thorndike,  Edward  L.,  318, 
322 

1  i  Thoughts  concerning  Educa- 
tion," 191 

Toledo,  93 

Torricelli,  166 

' '  Tractate  on  Education, ' ' 
159  f .,  164 

Trivvum,  82 

Turgot,  196 

Tyndale,  134 

Tyndall,  272 

University,  Alexandria,  47  f . 
Athens,  43,   46  f. 
Berlin,  363 
Bologna,  99 
Brown,  336 
Cambridge,  100,  385 
Columbia,  333 
Dartmouth,  336 
English  municipal,  280,  386 
of  France,  373,  377 
Gottingen,  187 
Halle,  178,  278 
Harvard,  336 
Jena,  187 


University,  Leipzig,  100,  251 
London,  386 
Marseilles,  61 
Michigan,  357 
Oxford,  100,  385 
Padua,  100 
Paris,  99 
Pennsylvania,  333 
Pergamus,  47 
Prague,  100 
Princeton,  333 
Rhodes,    47 
Borne,  6J^ — • 
Salerno,  99 
Saracen,  93 
of   the  State  of  New  York, 

354 

Tarsus,  47 
Virginia,  341 
Yale,  336 
Ursulines,  152 

Vespasian,   61 

Virgil,  63,  118 

Vittorino  da  Feltre,  119  f. 

Volkschule,  367 

Voltaire,  196 

Voluntary  schools,  301,  381 

Vorsclwle,  367 

Wallace,  272 

Wandering  students   (vag  antes, 

goliardi),  103 
Weimar,  152 
Wilderspin,  Samuel,  295 
William  of  Occam,  97,  107 
Wirt,  William  A.,  317 
Wolsey,  127 
Woman's   education,    Aristotle, 

41 
Catholic  reaction,  152 


397 


INDEX 


Woman 's    education,    chivalry, 

90  f. 

Erasmus,   124 
Greeks,  18 
Jews,  11 
Middle  Ages,  85 
Plato,  37 
present     status,     359,     371, 

377 
Reformation,  134,  136 


Woman's  education,  Eousseau, 

212  f. 
Wiirtemburg,  137,  152 

Xenophon,  34 
Yverdon,   229 

Zedlitz,  von,  362 

Ziller,  Tuiskon,  250,  251  f. 


(I) 


I 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


AY  221950 

JUN  15  1950 


12  Apr  55  Jl 


IQC 


14Jan'581?H" 


D  21-100rn-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 


s/n     J ^  *  ' 
T  D    ^fUM-  i 


;      UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


